Captain of the Hobnobbin Ferry

We have been in a golden age of science. That is everywhere evident: in our transportation systems for example. We can actually fly even if by principles of physics not obviously birdlike. Also, we have ample supplies of foodstuffs, even if not distributed equitably around the globe, and many fewer of us may be farmers than are workers in Giant Eagles. We have greater health security and life expectancy in the modern medicines of advantaged societies, though it is easy to see how much more there is to know, and reduce to therapy. For now, it is drug for this, and drug for that. And yes our English language literature and ways of communicating it reflect our scientific knowledge, even in the opposite sense suggested by the literary category of Science Fiction. Do you mark that Mr. H.…