To the Editor.—
"Aquarius: Age of Change" (212:1517, 1970) ruefully recognizes the pace of modern science and politics, proposes that we oldsters adjust as best we can.
One of the earliest intelligent evaluations of Aquarius appeared on the last pages of Henry Adams' "The Education of Henry Adams," written about the turn of the century. For most historical changes, said Adams, the pace has been a geometrical progression (the modern terminology would be "exponential," with a positive exponent).
Adams correctly foresaw the 20th-century explosion of progress, science, and power; he also foresaw the grave social problems that would result. To the children of that century, he said, their grandparents would seem infantile; how could they, the grandparents, have accomplished so much in such dense ignorance? Yet the disturbances would eventually dominate the picture, and total dissolution would probably take place late in the century.
Adams' exponential rule has proved
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