ABSTRACT
The act of writing is a belief in the future. And so the texts we read, especially those in science, are oriented toward the understanding of, and even the creation of, possible forthcoming conditions. Notwithstanding such this future orientation, from time to time, it is helpful to take a glance backward in order to survey the path by which we have reached our present circumstances. That glance embraces not simply prior threads and themes of progress but embraces the concepts and contributions of now fallen “heroes,” whose thoughts and ideas still permeate and resonate in our living world. Such retrospections also provide salutary experiences, for we also witness our own past efforts now set in stark contrast to revealed reality. Salutary, because our mistaken pronouncements come back to haunt us. However, we should not despair therefrom since the future is necessarily destined to make fools of us all. And these perusals do provide us opportunity to celebrate any occasional prescience we have expressed and also to expand upon such prescience to pronounce further on our immediate future. The relevant issue for the present commentary concerns our future with autonomy. It is upon this issue that I look to provide brief comments, in light of what I wrote now some quarter of a century ago.
