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''The World Set Free'' is a novel written in 1913 and published in 1914 by H. G. Wells.〔David C. Smith, ''H.G. Wells: Desperately Mortal: A Biography'' (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986), p. 83-85. According to Smith, Wells wrote ''The World Set Free'' at the château of his mistress, Elizabeth von Arnim, dubbed "Soleil" ('Sun'), in Randogne, Switzerland.〕 The book is based on a prediction of nuclear weapons of a more destructive and uncontrollable sort than the world has yet seen. It had appeared first in serialised form with a different ending as ''A Prophetic Trilogy'', consisting of three books: ''A Trap to Catch the Sun'', ''The Last War in the World'' and ''The World Set Free''.〔''A Prophetic Trilogy'' was serialized in ''Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine'' (January 1914 – March 1914).〕 A frequent theme of Wells's work, as in his 1901 nonfiction book ''Anticipations,'' was the history of humans' mastery of power and energy through technological advance, seen as a determinant of human progress. The novel begins: "The history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal. . . . Always down a lengthening record, save for a set-back ever and again, he is doing more."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), p. 15 ("Prelude: The Sun Snarers," §1).〕 (Many of the ideas Wells develops here found a fuller development when he wrote The Outline of History in 1918-1919.) The novel is dedicated "To Frederick Soddy's ''Interpretation of Radium''," a volume published in 1909. Scientists of the time were well aware that the slow natural radioactive decay of elements like radium continues for thousands of years, and that while the ''rate'' of energy release is negligible, the ''total amount'' released is huge. Wells used this as the basis for his story. In his fiction, Wells's knowledge of atomic physics came from reading William Ramsay, Ernest Rutherford, and Frederick Soddy; the last discovered the disintegration of uranium. Soddy's book ''Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt'' praises ''The World Set Free''. Wells's novel may even have influenced the development of nuclear weapons, as the physicist Leó Szilárd read the book in 1932, the same year the neutron was discovered. In 1933 Szilárd conceived the idea of neutron chain reaction, and filed for patents on it in 1934.〔 In a volume published in 1968, Szilard wrote: "Knowing what (chain reaction ) would mean—and I knew because I had read H.G. Wells—I did not want this patent to become public." Quoted in Norman and Jeanne MacKenzie, ''H.G. Wells: A Biography'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973), p. 299.〕 Wells's "atomic bombs" have no more force than ordinary high explosive and are rather primitive devices detonated by a "bomb-thrower" biting off "a little celluloid stud."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), pp. 106-07 ("Chapter the Second: The Last War," §3).〕 They consist of "lumps of pure Carolinum" that induce "a blazing continual explosion" whose half-life is seventeen days, so that it is "never entirely exhausted," so that "to this day the battle-fields and bomb fields of that frantic time in human history are sprinkled with radiant matter, and so centres of inconvenient rays."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), pp. 108-09 ("Chapter the Second: The Last War," §4).〕 Wells observes: Wells viewed war as the inevitable result of the Modern State; the introduction of atomic energy in a world divided resulted in the collapse of society. The only possibilities remaining were "either the relapse of mankind to agricultural barbarism from which it had emerged so painfully or the acceptance of achieved science as the basis of a new social order." Wells's theme of world government is presented as a solution to the threat of nuclear weapons. The devastation of the war leads the French ambassador at Washington, Leblanc, to summon world leaders to a conference at Brissago, where Britain's "King Egbert" sets an example by abdicating in favor of a world state. Such is the state of the world's exhaustion that the effective coup of this "council" ("Never, of course, had there been so provisional a government. It was of an extravagant illegality."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), p. 223 ("Chapter the Fourth: The New Phase," §9).〕) is resisted only in a few places. The defeat of Serbia's "King Ferdinand Charles" and his attempt to destroy the council and seize control of the world is narrated in some detail.〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), pp. 171-92 ("Chapter the Third: The Ending of War," §§6-8).〕 Brought to its senses, humanity creates a utopian order along Wellsian lines in short order. Atomic energy has solved the problem of work. In the new order "the majority of our population consists of artists."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), p. 229 ("Chapter the Fourth: The New Phase," §10).〕 ''The World Set Free'' concludes with a chapter recounting the reflections of one of the new order's sages, Marcus Karenin, during his last days. Karenin argues that knowledge and power, not love, are the essential vocation of humanity, and that "There is no absolute limit to either knowledge or power."〔H.G. Wells, ''The World Set Free'' (London: W. Collins Sons, 1924), p. 275 ("Chapter the Fifth: Last Days of Marcus Karenin," §8).〕 ==See also== *The Shape of Things to Come *The World State 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The World Set Free」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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