Born Under Mars

When mankind colonized the stars, it developed into two different, antogonistic types that had left Mars behind. As well, they had left behind the dead-end Mars-born mutations, with which man had once tested his adaptiveness, on a world that had fallen into apathy and decay. But when secret agents of the two branches of humanity focused their unwelcome attention on the most recent star mission of one such mutation, he had no time to ponder the plight of his home planet. For Ray Mallin found himself the unwitting key to a secret that could affect the entire future of mankind. Written almost 40 years ago, John Brunner saw where humanity was heading in the 21st century: gradually Earth society begins to homogenise. More and more groups formerly differentiated by linguistic conditioning and local traditions adopt the universal goal of physical well being and the associated concepts. We have more data than any man could become acquainted with in a lifetime, yet we are unable to deduce novel conclusions from this welter of information. It all leads to a decline of stimulus.A confortable tendency to conformity supplants the urge to explore. The sum of our vaunted ability to alter our environment has surpassed our ability to reason about what we are doing. It is a short novel but the implications are staggering.