ion from the sun. Thus preparing the upper crust
of our earth as a "placenta" ready to gestate plant and animal life.

How this first "unfreezing" of matter leads on from simple forms to
higher, every plant, every animal, every living thing being essentially
a "transformer" of static energy into dynamic energy and the higher the
stage of evolution, the more so.

How as the present culmination of the evolutionary chain stands man;
infinitely more complex and higher organized than the microbe, but not
different from the monad in the basic purpose of his life: i.e. to be a
transformer of energy, a fulfiller of matter's inherent will to revert
from the static into the dynamic state.

When I asked The Brain's premises for this astonishing concept of our
purpose in life, The Brain brought forth such massive proof that I had
to close my eyes against the blinding light of revelation.

Yes, it is true that Man, the hunter, has been the most predatory animal
on earth. It's true that as a tiller of the soil he is a tireless
transformer of static soil energy into dynamic plant life energy. It's
true that Man, the mechanic, the toolmaker, the tool-user has far
surpassed any other animal in the unlocking, the unfreezing of static
energy. Think of those billions of mechanical horsepowers in our power
plants; the trillions of coal tons and barrels of oil they are burning
up; think of the way we have harnessed waterpower, how our weapons are
evolving forever in the direction of greater range and speed and
disintegrating power. Above all: think of the last great development,
atomic energy. And finally it is true that Man as a thinker and as a
philosopher has "thought the universe to pieces" for milleniums before
he ever achieved the powers to translate such thoughts into reality;
powers which seem within reach at this our day and age....

"If this is Man's manifest destiny," I asked The Brain, "to be just as
the microbe, a transformer of static energy into dynamic energy; what
about Man's metaphysical struggle? What about Man's undying will to rise
above himself, Man's reaching out forever toward some Deity?"

The Brain's voice has no laughter; yet, there was something I can only
describe as Olympic laughter behind the answering message The Brain
sent:

"Cannot you see how every religion expresses this manifest destiny of
Man's and that only the semantics are different? The higher Man's
religion the less corporeal is his god. In t