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OCR for page 427
CHAPTER NINE
BIOLOGY AND
THE FUTURE
OF MAN
THE NATURE OF MAN
The forces shaping the short-term future of man, perhaps to the turn of
this century, are apparent, and the events are in train. The shape of the
world in the year 2000 and man's place therein will be determined by the
manner in which organized humanity confronts several major challenges.
If sufficiently successful, and mankind escapes the dark abysses of its own
making, then truly will the future belong to man, the only product of
biological evolution capable of controlling its own further destiny.
Social organizations, through their political leaders, will determine on
peace or war, on the use of conventional or nuclear weapons, on the
encouragement or discouragement of measures to limit the growth of
populations, on the degree of increase in food production, and on the con-
servation of a healthy environment or its continuing degradation.
These and lesser decisions will affect the composition of the human
species. Some major population groups will grow in numbers, others will de-
cline, relatively or absolutely, as they have in the past. Thus, in the seven-
teenth century, Europeans and their descendants on other continents made
up approximately 20 percent of the world's population; in 1940 they repre-
sented nearly 40 percent of all people. A relative increase of Asian and
African peoples has developed more recently. Each trend was the result
of such complex circumstances as the opening of sparsely inhabited con
427
Representative terms from entire chapter:
lesser decisions
