Opinion

“Childhood’s End”: Questioning the End of Human Civilisation

As a long-time reader and writer of science fiction, I recently participated in the Imagine the Future • AI Generation project organised by the Hiu Kok Drama Association. It is hoped that the collision of “science fiction” and “theatre” will spark the fire of creativity and open up more space for imagination through the conception, creation and performance of sci-fi works. 
 
On June 12, I attended a talk entitled Science vs. Art with several friends who are also interested in this topic (including a university professor, a radio host and an artistic director of the theatre association) to explore the future world where human beings live alongside AI. 
 
To explore the future (or the end) of mankind, British science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke is a name worth knowing. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein are informally known as the “Big Three” of science fiction in the 20th century. During the Second World War, Clarke served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist. After the war, he attained a degree in mathematics and physics from King’s College London. He began writing science fiction in 1950, and many of the predictions he made in his works have now become reality. His best-known science fiction novel is 2001: A Space Odyssey, a story he co-invented with master director Stanley Kubrick. Both the film and the novel have become classics today.
 
But Clarke’s End of the Earth trilogy (Childhood’s End, The Songs of Distant Earth, and Earthlight) is probably more thought-provoking when it comes to the imagination and exploration of mankind’s future. The first in the series, Childhood’s End, was published in 1953 (it was rewritten in 1990 and adapted into a TV series of the same name in 2015). In the book, Clarke depicts the end of human civilisation: an alien civilisation – Overlords, far more technologically advanced than humans, takes over the Earth and creates a “utopia” free from war and strife, where peace and prosperity prevail. However, it turns out the ultimate goal of the aliens is to lead mankind to the ultimate stage of evolution…
 
I read this novel many years ago without fully understanding it. It was only when re-reading the story that I took my attention away from the “aliens” and realised it was the humans that Arthur C. Clarke was focusing on. Mankind never gives up the hope and courage to challenge its far superior opponents: they fearlessly attempt to see Overlord Karellen’s true form; they stow away on an Overlord supply ship and travel light years to the invaders’ home planet…The independence and defiance of the Earthlings are like a candlelight that never dies, glimmering even in the darkest moments. 
 
Childhood’s End brings out the author’s ultimate proposition on the evolution of civilisation: the Overlord Karellen, who has become the “god” of mankind, seems omnipotent, but is in fact just a servant of the Overmind, a vast cosmic intelligence. In order to survive, the Overlord must first choose to destroy itself. But if mankind (or any civilisation) can only survive in a form devoid of self-consciousness, what is the point of achieving immortality or omnipotence? It prompts us to read the tragic ending another way. If human civilisation is bound to come to an end and the billions of years of history destined to be buried in the universe, then it is time for mankind to ponder seriously: “When not a thing ever really mattered, where could dust have gathered and lain?”
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