Stay with me here, as I condense an already short story I once read...

A young man of about 20, Rob woke up to find the computer on board his space ship had brought him out of sleep for a day. After a quick check to see nothing was out of the ordinary, he was instructed to go to the "nursery" on board. There, he saw 25 babies in incubators. Rob was encouraged to pick them up, play with them, and he did so, enjoying the little critters. Then, at the end of the day, he went back to his specially made cabin and went to sleep, where he was expected to spend the 140 year journey to the new colony planet.

The next day he awoke, one year later, he again checked over the ship and then went down to the nursery to play with the now one year old tikes. Then Rob went back to sleep. The next day he woke up, yet another year later, the two year old toddlers were talking and playing. At first they were a little shy of him, but Rob quickly won them over and they made him "king".

This went on for years. Every year, Rob would wake up for one day. The children, now teenagers, started calling it his "birthday" and knew when he was expected to show up. Some of them, especially the girls, looked at him funny seeing as they were almost 11 and not so far from 20. The boys started eyeing him with a little bit of jealousy when they noticed the girls looking this way.

About the 30`" year, Rob noticed for the first time that there were now only 20. When he asked what had happened, he found out that one had committed suicide, one had murdered another, and the rest of them brought justice to the killer. The other two had died from accidents. They had decided to try to take the ship apart and "free" him from his cabin, but the ship's computer would not seem to allow it to happen. At the 45''' year, the now adult scientists tried to puzzle out the intention of the ship's builders and came up with all sorts of wild theories and ideas why Rob was being "tormented" in such a way. They were also excitedly inventing all sorts of new things. On it went.

In the 60`h year, or about the second month as Rob reckoned things, he noticed yet more had been lost to disease and accidents. Those left were in good spirits and treated him very kindly, like they had all adopted him as their "child" since they were unable to have any children of their own.

In the 80'" year, the remaining people were starting to need assistance from the ship and some had failing hearing and eyesight. As each "day" for Rob went by, more and more of them were missing as they gave in to cancer or disease. Finally, one day Rob woke up and there were no more people on board. It was the 120`h day. There was something else different, too. His computer had a message for him.

"You have been given a great gift", it said. "You were given the ability to observe human behavior from start to finish. In 20 more "days", we will be arriving at a new planet. You will be the leader of not 25 but thousands of people now being prepared in the rest of the ship. There will be hardships and unexpected problems, but you have learned what to expect and that people will overcome these things, if they just keep calm and use their most valuable tool, their brains."

While I agree the story is an interesting/amazing one (it is to me!) it really is another way to promote humanism. Why study the creator when you can simply observe the creation? Why read the manual when "experience" is all you need to go by? Don't bother learning how people should behave, they will disappoint you anyway. Just learn what they are going to do so you can predict and deal with it. We know that's silly (don't we???), and in fact what I have found is that by reading my bible I learn all about human nature, from a book that not only discusses it but explains and demonstrates the benefits and consequences involved. Not surprisingly, with folks I can relate to!

In H.G. Wells The Time Machine he reflects more of the values expressed by his society. Remember, at the end of that story our time traveler comes back one last time to gab three books. Supposedly a book on botany, the famous book How Things Work, and a bible. Even H.G. knew you needed a manual not just for what to eat and what to build, but for people, too!

And if you think about it, we've been learning about people (and our creator!) the same way Rob did in the short story above - one day at a time!

Randy