Most of them turned to look at me. I could have inquired which period of human history had not been more interested in weapons than in anything else, but I felt that the question might be thought to be lacking in tact.
“And from the point of view of weapons, you can see what an important thing this is. Throughout history the development of new weapons has been a matter of first one side and then the other getting slightly ahead. Now, for the first time, we may have the chance of moving a clear century into the lead. Our position, with this advantage, would be impregnable. Think of that. Just now we are clinging to what we know is no more than five or ten years’ lead in atomic weapons. Multiply that by a factor of ten or twenty. It represents absolute safety.”
The professor took a sip of water.
“Well, all that’s the theory. You will want to know what we have done about it, from the practical point of view. The thing to do, of course, was to find those people who had this power of prevision, possibly in a latent form, and then to develop it. The government”—he smiled slightly in reminiscence—“once they were convinced we knew what we were talking about, helped us there. Tests—intelligence tests, character tests, aptitude tests—take place in the schools every day. We were allowed to substitute for these a test of our own; a test designed to unearth pupils with what became known as the ‘P’ factor.
“We found quite a few; the factor differed widely in intensity. Those children that scored very high in the tests were awarded scholarships to a school that we had specially set up. There, over and above the normal procedure of education, they were studied for their aptitude in ‘P’. We found a number of different ways in which the factor could be brought out—variations in diet, living conditions, and so on.
“We concentrated particularly, of course, on coaching our star pupils. From two or three we got extremely good results right from the start. And it was these good results that revealed the really big problem we had to contend with—selectivity. We got plenty of material, but it wasn’t the kind of thing we were looking for. We found that the ‘P’ factor operated according to the psychological scope of the individual. A boy naturally musical came up with interesting fragments from unwritten sonatas and symphonies, but gave us nothing on the technological side. We had to find someone who would have the ‘P’ factor plus a natural scientific bent. None of our first crop passed satisfactorily; we had to go back to the schools and look again.”
One of the politicians that I did not recognize interrupted:
“As a plain man, Professor, there’s one question I would like to put. How could you be sure the results were really prophetic, and not just the sort of queer dreams that children have?”
The professor tapped the despatch case on the table in front of him.
“I have a manuscript here,” he said, “that was produced in our first year—seven years ago. It has been kept in our files. Three months ago it was published, still without having been released by us, as a chapter in a best-selling novel. That’s the sort of proof we’ve had.