Final Word

This week's Final Word comes from a writer who was active in the Voluntary Euthanasia Society:

"Our hypnotic enslavement to the numerical aspects of reality has dulled our perception of non-quantitative moral values; the resultant end-justifies- the-means ethics may be a major factor in our undoing. Conversely, the example of Plato's obsession with perfect spheres, of Aristotle's arrow propelled by the surrounding air, the 48 epicycles of Canon Koppernigk and his moral cowardice, Tycho's mania of grandeur, Kepler's sun-spokes, Galileo's confidence tricks, and Descartes' pituitary soul, may have some sobering effect on the worshippers of the new Baal, lording it over the moral vacuum with his electronic brain."

The winner of last week's competition, who correctly identified Peter Benchley's Jaws , is Janet Mackie Hackel of Edinburgh University.