Examples illustrating this point were easy to find.
…We have given you fire. It was intended to keep you warm in the winter and cook your food. You used it to forge swords and burn down villages.
We have invented machines to bring relief to humanity. You have transformed them into engines of death, on the earth, the sea and in the air.
We have given you energy in all its forms. You have used it to raze whole cities to the ground…
At the conclusion of this warning, Honoured Presidents, we take as proven that you are the least qualified to hold the reins of power in this world or in any of its parts. The depressing outcome of your reigns was that you have worn yourselves out with puerile jealousies, in sterile discussions and wretched quarrels, before destroying whole peoples in deadly wars which were contrary to the scientific spirit, wars which you regarded as being impossible to avoid, after you had done everything to provoke them by your blindness, your ignorance and your recklessness.
Thus we have arrived at the purpose of this message. Having met in a plenary session, all of us Nobels, the Nobels of science, Nobels of peace, and Nobels of literature, are unanimous in judging that our duty is to terminate a bizarre and dangerous situation.
We demand of you that you carry out the only action by which you can be of some use to the world: resign, relinquish all your functions and hand them over to Science, which will take on the task of running the Earth in the best interests of all. According to our judgment in fact, Science alone is qualified for this task. The clumsy experiments carried out in the past by other international organisations have all ended in failure, and it was inevitable that it should be so, for their delegates, designated by insane governments, could not help being devoid of intellect and reason.
Honoured Presidents, we, the Nobels, do not demand power for ourselves. We will make sure that it is entrusted to people who are young enough to demonstrate their dy
namism and authority and who have shown signs of their wisdom and scientific knowledge, which we alone are qualified to judge.
After your resignation, which we would like to happen immediately on receipt of this letter, and while we wait for the government which the world feels it urgently needs, we shall play the roles of provisional guardians of the administrative organisations as they exist at present, and which you should kindly leave in place. Those chosen by us will then take charge of concentrating the present hotchpotch into a few central coherent ministries.
We have only a few further remarks to add. Though we are convinced that your conscience will have been touched by these truths and that you are prepared to retire, we have however anticipated a contrary outcome and have made the following arrangements:
1. With no consideration of our respective nationalities, we have all exchanged the results of our most recent research in our various fields. We would like to emphasise that some of the results would be of special interest to you in the improvement of your offensive and defensive armaments. In addition we have vowed that everything discovered by one of us would be immediately communicated to all the others.
2. Please be aware also of the following fact, which will probably concern you more for the time being: that a large number of little-known scholars, enlisted by you in the service of your so-called national defence and also a considerable number of technical experts working secretly with the same goals were released by us, the Nobels, from their oaths of secrecy and they have agreed to follow us.
The following, Honoured Presidents, is the state of affairs at the time of writing:
Soviet scholars and technical experts not only know about the latest scientific theories developed in the United States, concerning antimatter and cosmic radiation, but also about the practical procedures for the industrial manufacture of our most secret nuclear weapons, their precise range, the precision of the most recently developed American rockets, as well as the number, extent and coordinates, almost to a metre, of their stocks.
In return, American scholars and technical experts are no less well informed about the military secrets of the Russians, even about the locations of underground shelters for the general staff and the government.
The same is true (and here we are quoting some random examples discovered by our own initiatives) of mathematicians who are specialists in Chinese numerals, who have complete knowledge of the confidential codes developed by their colleagues in other nations. Elsewhere, Israeli experts in this field are able to decipher in a few minutes the most secret Chinese messages.
Lastly, as a final sample of the measures we, the Nobels, have taken, to assure the triumph of the scientific revolution and to safeguard the Earth, we wish to inform you that all the studies conducted concerning chemical and bacteriological warfare have now been distributed to laboratories all over the world.
We have enclosed as attachments to this letter copies of documents considered by you to be top secret (concerning the process of industrial manufacture, the location of various stocks, confidential figures, etc.) which will show you that our assertions are in no way idle boasts.
We hope, Honoured Presidents, that both reason and our reasons will convince you at the same time of your unworthiness and of the necessity of carrying out the action which we expect, with the least possible delay.
There followed, in alphabetical order, the signatures of all living Nobels.
9.
The date of the world festival was fixed for 1st August, after consultation with meteorological experts, who promised that day would bring sufficiently fine weather conditions on all the continents and glorious weather in New York, where the festival would be celebrated with the greatest pomp, in the presence of the President. Such a festival should obviously be celebrated on the same date in all the towns and villages in the world. The only problem for the scholars was that they would not be able to be everywhere at the same moment, due to the time difference.
The experts had not been mistaken. A clear sky lit up the former United Nations building when Fawell, the leader of the first world government, came out of it, escorted by several officials, and after a pause in front of the photographers, he took his seat in his car, to go and join the parade.
The world government had been operating for several months, and had at first found itself facing the problem of residence. After a few hesitations, the United Nations building, which had been emptied in a matter of days of its incompetent occupants and its unusable dusty archives, was chosen as provisional accommodation, while they were waiting for the construction of an imposing centre, worthy of providing a home for the brain and the heart of the world, and for which Fawell was preparing the plans. The choice of New York had not been criticised, as the city provided obvious facilities for communicating with the rest of the world and had long possessed quite an international character, in its population and lifestyle.
What was perhaps most surprising about the scientific revolution was the ease and rapidity of its success, to such an extent that its developers found themselves confronted sooner than expected with a mass of details which had not yet been studied. Mrs Betty Han’s prediction had been correct: at the start of the twenty-first century, more or less all over our planet, the leaders had become tired of governing, exhausted by their sterile efforts to resolve problems which were beyond their competence, and all the peoples of the world had a vague awareness of the situation. The letter from the Nobels arrived just at the right moment and the evidence contained in it impressed everybody. Their prestige and the weight carried by their unanimity (the internal divisions had been carefully hidden from the public) made an enormous impression. Finally, their initiative in doing away with the concept of essential secrets by bringing down scientific barriers made the positions of heads of state untenable. Almost all of them gave in and handed in their resignation immediately. A few rare ones who resisted were obliged to do the same when they were swept aside by the torrent of public opinion which imperiously demanded that they depart.
Fawell had won the competition brilliantly. Yranne and Mrs Han tied for second place. In fact the mathematician’s composition raised him a fraction of a point above the psychologist, but the jury agreed with O’Kearn’s opinion: the psychologist deserved to have her mark raised by the same fraction, due to her decision to check herself the integrity of the envelope containing the exam topic, not trusting anyone, not even the Nobels. Such audacity revealed that she had character, and one should take that into account in a test intended to judge suitability to govern. With Zarratoff coming third, the promoters of the scientific world government became its principal members, which was only fair. It was left to Fawell himself to designate his vice-president. After hesitating a little, he chose Yranne, whose clarity of thought and mathematical ability to simplify things he appreciated. These qualities would be valuable in putting the world in order. He reserved the right to seek the advice of Betty often, concerning problems requiring subtlety and a keen psychological sense.
As soon as he was elected, he started to put into practice the programme which he had outlined in general terms. This started off quite well, but more slowly than he had foreseen. There was no avowed opposition but there was a certain listlessness in carrying out the plans, which worried him. As Yranne could not suggest any remedy for this apathy, he asked Betty for her opinion.
‘Lack of enthusiasm,’ she said without hesitation. ‘If you remember, I predicted it. The people certainly respect science, but they don’t have the same feeling for it as we do. The conception they have of it is not sufficient to fire their spirit momentarily and make them increase their efforts. It is necessary to excite their senses.’
‘I agree with you completely. We will never achieve anything great without passion, and that is what seems to be lacking. But do you know of any means of arousing such fervour?’