Chapter 5 Summary

Next day, Ishmael and the narrator take up the story's end. Man has not completely ruled the world and this may be his undoing. He has devastated the world and does not know how to stop devastating it or repair what he has done. It is hard to imagine how the world can survive another century of man's abuse, unless man can increase his mastery and make his rule absolute. Then pollution-free fusion, the ability to turn rain on and off, farm the oceans, control the weather will come about, as man manipulates them programmatically. Going forward will either destroy the world or turn it into the paradise it is meant to be. Then man will be unstoppable and will move into the Star Trek era, conquering and ruling the entire universe.

The narrator is amazed Ishmael approves, offering only that 50 or 100 years...