114
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
didates: a boy, nine years old, and a girl of eight. Now the children are vot-
ing. The majority chose the boy.”
A businesslike little boy approached the table with a confident step. He
took some papers with plans and drawings out of a manila folder and laid
them on the table. All the children either gradually walked or skipped along
to join their parents sitting on the benches. The red-haired, freckle-faced
little girl—the other candidate for the speech—walked past the table with a
proudly raised head. She was holding a bigger and thicker folder than the
boy. There were probably drawings and plans in that folder, too.
The boy by the table tried to say something to the girl candidate walking
by, but the child didn’t stop. She straightened her red braid and walked past,
turning away demonstratively. For a while the boy watched, distraught, as
the proud red-haired child moved away. Then he again began to set out his
pages with great concentration.
“Who taught these children astronomy so well that they can give a report
to adults?” I asked Anastasia.
“No one taught them,” she replied. “It was suggested to them that they
themselves figure out how it is all arranged and then prepare and present
their conclusions. They have been preparing for more than two weeks, and
now the important moment has come. Their conclusions can be opposed by
anyone who wants to, and they will defend their opinion.”
“So this is like a game?”
“You could call what is going on a game, but it is a very serious game.
Each person present will engage and accelerate his thought about the plan-
etary arrangement and perhaps will begin to think about something bigger.
After all, the children have been thinking for two weeks, contemplating, and
their thinking is not limited by any dogmas. They do not have any preset in-
terpretations of the planetary arrangement hanging over them. We still do
not know what they will come out with.”
“Do you mean to say they will dream up something with their childish in-
tellect?”
“I mean to say they will present their theory. The adults do not have ax-
ioms of the planetary arrangement either, after all. The goal of this sym-
