Magellan's Log: Iris Murdoch: Future Breached

It is as if before he set out, you appeared from the 21^st century and showed Magellan our map of the planet. He would have looked and said, "No, it cannot be so." And he would set sail confidently, clinging to his vision of a smaller, simpler world. Murdoch opens let’s say windows of perception onto a possible future, perhaps the probable future. That future without science, or with science as lapdog, consigned, confined to so much valuable but invisible and generally ignored plumbing (the maze of pipes hidden beneath Enniston). We look at her map and say, "It cannot be so." And we sail on, confident in our vision of a smaller, simpler world.