Must Tomorrow's Man Look Like This?

No electronic plug-ins needed, say these two doctors. Man's own capacity for adaptation, with help from science, can fit him for new ways of life
By Toby Freedman. M.D., and Gerald S. Lindner, M.D.
THE design of vehicles is one of the oldest and noblest arts of mankind. Look at a model of a prehistoric Polynesian canoe. It's as hydro-dynamically elegant and functionally beautiful as the X-15. The wheel, the ski, the kayak, the sports car—pure geometry in motion. No doubt the engineers of these perfect and symmetrical structures beat their heads against the wall when told they had to squeeze in a passenger. One of the earliest recorded utterances in Samoan is the comment of a legendary canoe builder: 'Til be damned if I make the thwart four inches wider just to fit somebody's big fat----" (the inscription becomes illegible at this point).