Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER TWO This future vision of the world had the flavour of a short story by HG Wells. It was predicated upon the virtues of a scientific discovery and on the way a golden age could grow out of technological innovation. In contrast with the development of atomic power and microbiological research in our own age, these future powers would be used only for the public good; there would be no horrific side effects or catastrophic conclusions which society have to pay on demand. This thinking seemed to me almost as dated as the illustrations which used to accompany Mr Wells's visions of the future. PACE appeared to have escaped the pessimism which so many others had developed for science through the last decades. It ignored the horrors of modern war, the unthinking application of new processes, thalidomide disfigurement, disruptions of delicate control systems by insecticides and the pollution of lakes and rivers. There had once been a time when the world had had faith in a technological future but now it had become cynical and disillusioned by the promise of new breakthroughs and advances. It seemed to me that the Planetary Association for Clean Energy possessed a faith in science which was distinctly unfashionable. But, as I gathered their papers together, it struck me that, while their approach had seemed overenthusiastic, the basic premise was not too bad. PACE was concerned with the earth's supply of energy and with the distribution of this energy across the globe. This was a very sensible notion and one which scientists had been urging as far back as I could remember. Even at high school, I had read that our natural energy resources would soon be at an end, that energy would become concentrated in the hands of a minority and a sudden shortage would be disastrous. While some nodding acknowledgment had been given to these ideas, it had taken an increase in the cost of heating homes and running a car before an energy crisis could be taken seriously. Now it had happened and people were beginning to panic, newspapers carried wild suggestions by a variety of experts and private groups talked of burning wood and erecting solar panels on their homes. PACE seemed to have recognized the seriousness of the problem and that it had to be solved in a rational way on an international level. Even if the theory of broadcast power should prove to be wrong; at least their approach seemed reasonable. 22
