African Americans are the Descendants of Alien Abductees

Dery identified the parallels in "Black to the Future" as 'African Americans are, in a very real sense, the descendanmt of alien abductees," Dery writes. He compares the atrocities of racism experienced by blacks in the United States to "a sci-fi nightmare in which unseen but no less impassable force fields intolerance frustrate their movement; official histories undo what has been done; and technology is too often brought to bear on black bodies (branding, forced sterilization, the Tuskegee ...

 Amniotic Sac as Space Suit

The most fundamental innovation is the evolution of another fluid-filled sac, the amnion. in which the embryo floats. Amniotic fluid has roughly the same composition as seawater, so that in a very real sense, the amnion is the continuation of the original fish or amphibian eggs together with its microenvironment, just as a space suit contains an astronaut and a fluid that mimics the earth's atmosphere. All of the rest of the amniote egg is add-on technology that is also required for life in a...

 Carl Sagan's Summary of the Selfish Gene

In a very real sense human beings are machines constructed by the nucleic acids to arrange for the efficient replication of more nucleic acids. In a sense our strongest urges, noblest enterprises, most compelling necessities, and apparent free wills are all an expression of the information coded in the genetic material: We are, in a way, temporary ambulatory repositories for our nucleic acids. This does not deny our humanity; it does not prevent us from pursuing the good, the true, and the be...

 Kennedy's Speech to Congress Requesting Funds for the Spa...

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel...