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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Betrization | ||
| An in utero method of reducing human aggression. |
In the novel, a future society is made easier to govern by reducing the level of aggression in people before they are born.
| Betrization acted on the developing prosencephalon at an early stage in life by means of a group of proteolytic enzymes. The effects were selective: the reduction of aggressive impulses by 80 to 88 percent in comparison with the nonbetrizated; the elimination of the formation of associative links between acts of aggression and the sphere of positive feelings; a general 87-percent reduction in the possibility of accepting personal risk in life.
Betrization causes the disappearance of aggression through the complete absence of command, and not by inhibition. |
| From Return from the Stars,
by Stanislaw Lem. Published by Not known in 1961 Additional resources -
|
Interestingly, this technique also resulted in a society that lacked true innovation and free thinking.
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