Science fiction writers have odd ways of looking at the universe, if you ask us. Twenty thousand years ago mankind spread out of Africa like a disease consuming the world. We've got records of the settlement of the Americas by Europeans, for goodness' sake! But Raymond F. Jones, here, finds the notion problematic. "Extensions of humanity from one area to another on a permanent basis are made by colonists. Men who do not expect to rotate," he has one character tell another, "but come to live and establish homes. This is what we want on Serrengia. Humanity is preparing to make an extension of itself in the Universe. But more than this, there are limitations of time and distance in the establishment of bases, which cannot be overcome by any amount of training of personnel. Cycles of rotation and distances from home can be lengthened beyond the capacity of men to endure. It is only when they go out with no expectation of return that time and distance cease to control them."
Author Biography
Raymond Fisher Jones (1915 - 1994) was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel This Island Earth, which was adapted into the eponymous 1955 film. Most of Jones' short fiction was published during the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, in magazines such as Thrilling Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories and Galaxy. His sixteen novels were published between 1951 and 1978. His short story "Rat Race," first published in the April 1966 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, was nominated for a Hugo Award. In 1996, "Correspondence Course," first published in the April 1945 edition of Astounding Stories, was nominated for a Retro Hugo award for best short story. Another short story, "The Alien Machine," first published in the June 1949 edition of Thrilling Wonder Stories, was later combined with two other short stories, "The Shroud of Secrecy" and "The Greater Conflict" and expanded into the novel This Island Earth, upon which the movie of the same name was based. Jones also wrote the story upon which a 1952 Tales of Tomorrow television program episode, titled "The Children's Room," was based. Jones short story, "Tools of the Trade," that appeared in the November 1950 issue of Astounding, was the first story dealing with 3D printing, although he called it "Molecular Spray" at the time.
