a consecutive period unless no other collective member has need for the computer. 6.2 The computer shall be located at [place] and shall be returned to that location after being used unless other arrangements are made with the next user. 6.3 Only collective members may use the computer, with the following exceptions: (a) Entry of data for organizational list maintenance for [names of organizations] and any other organization designated by the computer collective. (b) People entering data for special projects under the supervision of a collective member. Section 7—Amendments 7.1 This agreement may be changed at any meeting of the computer collective. With mutual respect and trust we enter into this agreement; [signatures of collective members and date of agreement] □ □ July/August 1984 RAIN Page 27 ACCESS: Futures At the Crossroads, by the Communications Era Task Force, 1984, 32 pp., $2.50 per single copy, $1.50 each for 2-20 copies, from: Communications Era Task Force PO Box 3623 Spokane, WA 99220 This is a document with a mission. By providing a concise overview of the dangers and opportunities confronting our society, along with some of the social patterns emerging in response to these realities, Robert Theobald and his cohorts in the Communications Era Task Force (CETF) hope to push discussion of fundamental social change out of the margins and into the mainstream of public debate. After reviewing some of the primary forces that will shape our future (such as computers and telecommunications, physical and ecological limits to growth, the threat of nuclear weapons, changing sex roles, and so on), the authors discuss ways in which people are coming to take more control over such areas as health care, crime prevention, workplace conditions, and investment decisions. They give special attention to new models of lifelong learning, new patterns of work, and new structures of decision-making that are both locally based and globally oriented. Although many of the themes may be familiar to veteran social-change activists, what is special about this document is that the ideas are presented in a manner accessible to a wide variety of people. CETF has adopted a unique strategy for circulating the document: Everyone who reads it and agrees with its basic message is encouraged to send in his or her signature and order copies to give to parents, neighbors, coworkers, legislators, and friends. Since we last reported on it (RAIN X;2, NW Bioregion Report), the document has reached a large number of people in this way. A sampling of the signers of an early draft of the document is included in the margins of the booklet. The diversity of its supporters is evident: the list includes a bishop, a taxi driver, a Chicana fetninist, a corporate president, a socialist, a prison guard, an Air Force officer, a solar activist, and two members of Congress. If At the Crossroads continues to garner support among such a wide range of people, it may succeed in helping to redefine the basic terms of public debate about our society's future. —LR A Hundred Billion Stars, by Mario Rigutti, 1984, 285 pp., $25 from; The MIT Press 28 Carleton Street Cambridge, MA 02142 Originally published in Italy in 1978, A Hundred Billion Stars is unusually "grounded." It won the European science-writing award, GLAXO "CEE." One reason it did, perhaps, is that Rigutti, Director of the Naples Astronomical Observatory, does not overemphasize the awesomeness of astronomy. He also does not gloss over the socio-political implications of space research: "Actually, science has not been left to the scientists for a long time nov\i because it is the politicians and the military who have been financing their research and setting their priorities. The military does not make the best partners or advisors—or, considering actual practice, bosses—for scientists. I think that every citizen ought to take an interest in scientific research, so that in the future decisions may be influenced by 'public opinion.'" The book addresses the way astronomers discover data and arrive at conclusions about cosmic phenomena as well as the current understanding of space and celestial bodies. Using the analogy of the galaxy as a town, Rigutti first introduces you to earth's neighborhood: the planets and the sun of earth's solar system. In plain, easy-to-understand language, Rigutti treats stellar distances, magnitudes, temperatures, masses, life cycles, and clusters; pulsars, supernovae, and planetary nebulae; and features of our galaxy. We would all do well to develop respect and appreciation for our place in earth's neighborhood and the stellar community. —KN The Evolutionary Journey: A Personal Guide to a Positive Future, by Barbara Marx Hubbard, 1982,177 pp., $7.95 from: Institute for Conscious Evolution 2418 Clement Street San Francisco, CA 94121 The late Buckminster Fuller called Barbara Marx Hubbard "the best informed human" on the concept of futurism. I can see why, after saying "ah-ha" time after time as 1 read The Evolutionary Journey. She perceives the nuclear threat and environmental, social, and economic crises as "evolutionary drivers." EvoIut tion's 15-billion-year tradition, she has discovered, is to make sudden changes via such triggers. The quantum leap Hubbard sees taking form out of our crises holds the opportunity, if not the necessity, for us to become purposeful participants in personal and social evolution. "Now our generation," she believes, "is approaching the Tree of Life—the knowledge of how the invisible processes of creation do in fact work— the brain, the atom, the genes, the cells, the stars. We are ascending from self- consciousness to cosmic consciousness, from creature to co-creator, from Earth- only to universal. We are about to become like the gods, partners with the evolutionary process—or perish." Hubbard wrote an exciting synopsis of her book in the April 1983 issue of The Futurist, entitled "The Future of Futurism: Creating a New Synthesis." She is, by the way, actively pursuing the Democratic nomination for vice-president. With over 90 campaign centers—called Positive Future Centers—she's attempting to bring her synergistic skills and knowledge into public service. For more information, contact The Campaign for a Positive Future, PO Box 4011, Ir\'ine, CA 92716; 714/752-1204. —KN
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