“Autogenesis”. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, 1929

Many people do not believe in autogenesis on planets on the grounds that this autogenesis is not observed on the Earth during experiments and in nature.

I will try to convince such people of the opposite.

Do we see everything on Earth? New species of animals, plants, bacteria and minerals are discovered every day. It is especially difficult to observe the microscopic world – and on the entire Earth’s surface too, at all depths and heights.

Isn’t what we can’t do now impossible in the future? Previously, it was considered impossible to obtain organic substances derived from plants and animals.

Now this is being refuted more and more. Organic aromas, paints, oils, and sugars have been obtained in an innumerable variety exceeding the nature.

Going this way, won’t we reach living organic substances, the creation of protoplasm, plant and animal cells?

Since when the opportunity of development of an egg (an animal germ cell) without natural fertilization had been discovered!

It was considered impossible at one time: an airplane, a radio, a talking machine, a steamboat, a steam locomotive, a sewing machine and an infinite number of other tools that people use now. The scope of their creativity cannot be limited.

If it were impossible to create artificially a living being, then it would be impossible to destroy it.

Arrhenius, Thomson and others consider the transfer of life from other planets to Earth possible. Therefore, they allow autogenesis on other planets that are no different from the Earth. And if it is possible on planets, then why is it impossible on the Earth?

Nevertheless, I argued that this transfer is unthinkable. Therefore, we must necessarily allow this autogenesis on the Earth; otherwise it is impossible to explain the appearance of life on our planet.

I also proved that the transfer of life is possible with the help of the technique of higher human-like beings. But then these beings, their superior civilization, technical perfection, structures of various kinds would have appeared on Earth. If all this was ever destroyed by hostile nature, some kind of catastrophe, for example, a grand earthquake, a comet, the fall of a large bolide, etc., then still there could remain fossil traces of a higher culture, which, however, we do not see.

We found traces of worms and insects. How could we not find traces of a higher human!

Therefore, it is inevitable to allow self-generation (autogony) again.

“Alive from alive”. A living one had not been got from the dead one yet. For now, this is irrefutable, but is it forever?! Nature also does not seem to produce a single creature from a mixture of materials anywhere.

But let’s assume that it produced the beginnings of life somewhere invisibly to us. The question is whether they could have survived and continued their phylogenetic development (evolution).

The lower nationalities die out when they come into contact with the higher ones. So, the Indians, New Zealanders and many other weak races have almost died out. Here, that was the fault of the cruelty of the Europeans partly. But let there be a merciful and fair attitude towards them, and yet they are destined to disappear (or dissolve into more perfect races) sooner or later, having served humanity. The degree of capacity to work, resistance to diseases and so on will give victory to the higher races, because the latter will procreate better and die out slower.

Apes and monkeys still exist now. But they will also disappear when people will multiply and occupy the land they inhabit.

If there were no higher races, the lower ones would play a role; and the apes would have reached the development of man. But competition will take them off the face of the Earth for their own benefit. Not many of today’s people will leave offspring, as they will be replaced by the offspring of the highest representatives of the Earth.

Many lower animals would have evolved and had a great future if it weren’t for the competition of the higher ones. On the lower steps of the animal ladder, they do not stand on ceremony. The weakest ones are just devoured there. (We hope that nothing like this will happen in relation of strong cultures to weak ones, even to animals. And now there is propaganda about mercy for animals).

Also, the first germs of tender life, in the form of the simplest living organic compounds, currently cannot withstand the competition of existing more advanced bacteria and other creatures.

If they weren’t there, that’s another matter. The germs of life could develop, give multicellular and higher beings up to man and beyond. But there is no way for them to do that: they are immediately wiped out by the already ready and relatively perfect life surrounding them and numbering many millions of years of existence. It is impossible to fight it!

Similarly, the development of higher forms of life, for example, in relation to man, requires special isolation and enormous care for it, that people, unfortunately, do not know. That is why human progresses so ineffectually in relation to body and mind.

Let’s digress a little to the side. The question arises involuntarily: is it beneficial for humanity to reproduce the higher breeds and eliminate the lower ones mercifully? I will ask you what to do for a gardener who wants to feed himself – whether to plant vegetables from their seeds, or wait for algae to develop from bacteria, for mosses from algae, for ferns from mosses, for meadow grasses from the latter, for bad vegetables from weeds, for good vegetables from the latter. Wouldn’t he have to wait millions of years for carrots, beets, cabbage, potatoes, etc. The answer is clear. We should act the same way.

Reproduction of animals and imperfect people, and even enhanced reproduction, is still necessary. Without the overflow of the Earth, it is impossible to possess it. But the fuller the population of the Earth, the stricter the selection of the best ones will be, the stronger their reproduction and the weaker reproduction of the laggards. In the end, the latter will disappear for their own good, as they will be embodied in perfect forms.

You have read the article by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

You can download it for free in PDF format from the “The Collection of Works” section of the website. Unfortunately, most of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky’s works have not been translated into English. You can familiarize yourself with the works in Russian from the “Научное наследие” (“Scientific heritage”) section of the website.

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