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By Frank Smith
Senior Staff Writer
The early 21st century may dif
fer from the present as much as
the present does from the 17th
century, a Stanford University
professor told an audience at
Texas A&M Tuesday night.
Dr. Willis Harman, professor
of engineering and economic sys
tems at Stanford and president of
the Institute of Noetic Sciences in
Sausalito, Calif., spoke to a group
of about 70 in the Memorial Stu
dent Center. His presentation,
co-sponsored by the College of
Engineering and the University
Lectures Committee, was on
“The Global Systems Crisis: Its
Meaning and the Role of Techno-
togy.”
He based his prediction on the
current promulgation of “a new
heresy,” which he said is anala-
gous to the revolutionary “old
heresy” that brought Europe out
of the Middle Ages.
GLOBAL
SYSTEMS
CRISIS
Hi Meaning and the Role of Technology
“Whereas the old heresy was
that reality is not the way the
church authorities told us, the
new heresy is that reality is not
the way the secular authorities
told us, either,” he said.
In assessing where humans
currently stand in history, Har
man pointed out that society is in
the midst of changing its basic
philosophical assumptions.
He said those changes include
“giving more reality to values,
more reality to meaning, more
reality to consciousness, more
reality to spirit,” and will alter all
aspects of how humans do things.
The human knowledge system,
he said, is reassessing its most im
portant questions — questions
about the nature of reality, who
we are, how we relate to one an
other, how we relate to the uni
verse, and what is meaningful.
And that reassessment lines the
pathway for significant change,
he said.
“If there’s anything to that pic
ture at all, is means that the early
part of the 21st century is going
to be as different from what we
call modern times as modern
times are from the Middle Ages,”
Harman said. “Different in insti
tutions, in belief systems, in value
systems, in every way. And that’s
worth thinking about if we’re
doing anything that has any im
plications at all for the future.”
Throughout his presentation,
Harman emphasized that the
reality of one culture is different
from the reality of another.
In addition to changes in va
lues and underlying beliefs, Har
man also pointed to two other
forces that, spurred by recent
technological developments, have
changed the world.
Those forces, he said, are the
world’s evolution into an infor
mation society and the move to
ward a global perspective.
“What information society
really means is that we have a new
way now of keeping the economy
going full-blast, and that way in
volves a product called informa
tion,” he said.
The globalization of society, he
said, means humans have to re
vise their concepts, such as their
ideas on national security.
Survey: Students
support proposed
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AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clements urged
lawmakers Tuesday to ban state income taxes
and scolded them for failing to give the governor
and legislative leaders more power over state
spending.
In a wide-ranging news conference, Clements
endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment
that would prohibit either a personal or cor
porate income tax in Texas.
Such a ban has been proposed in the Senate by
Sen. Buster Brown, R-Lake Jackson, and in the
House by Rep. Stan Schlueter, D-Killeen.
“I certainly stand behind these bills,” Clements
said, adding that either type of tax would dam
age the Texas economy.
Clements said Texans can believe that his op
position to an income tax remains firm, although
some critics say he flip-flopped on a campaign
promise against renewing the current temporary
state sales tax increase. Clements this week voiced
support for keeping the sales tax levy at 5.25 per
cent for two more years.
“The best course of action would be to con
tinue the so-called temporary taxes,” Clements
said. “That has nothing whatsoever to do with my
stand with regard to either a corporate or per
sonal income tax.
“I am not only opposed to such taxes, 1 would
immediately veto any such tax that came to my
desk.”
The governor also sharply criticized the Legis
lature for failing to enact legislation that would
give him so-called “budget execution authority.”
That power would allow a governor and legis
lative leaders to make spending adjustments
when the Legislature isn’t in session by transfer
ring money between state agencies.
Voters have approved a constitutional amend
ment that would permit such new powers, and
Clements said they should be heeded by lawmak
ers even though the Senate last week voted down
efforts to bring the proposal up for debate.
“I am amazed that the Legislature is being
obstinate about this and taking an adverse view,”
Clements said.
“Contrary to some views, that is not a dead is
sue,” he said. “The people of Texas have spoken
in this regard. They have overwhelmingly said
that they want budget execution authority. I do
not think that this Legislature will thwart the will
of the people.”
On other issues, Clements said:
• He remains a supporter of capital punish
ment. “The death penalty will go forward. I’m in
favor of the death penalty. I always have been.”
• Texas has a good chance of luring the $6
billion, high-energy physics research project
called a superconducting supercollider.
“There is no question that we will be a serious
contender for this project,” Clements said, add
ing that Texas’ chief competition appears to be
California and Illinois.
• He hopes a conference can be scheduled
soon so that border governors of U.S. and Mexi
can states can discuss the twin-plant concept of
having companies locating factories on each side
of the border. “The twin-plant concept is terribly
important to Texas and also to Mexico,” he said:
By Melanie Perkins
Staff Writer
Eighty-five percent of Texas
A&M students randomly surveyed
see a need and are willing to finan
cially support new and more avail
able recreational facilities, says Den
nis Corrington, director of
intramural-recreational sports.
“The obvious support we are talk
ing about is money — we ask the
question, ‘How much are you willing
to support in terms of dollars?’ ”
Corrington says.
Responses to the section of the
survey asking how much a student
would be willing to pay per semester
to cover building and maintenance
costs of a proposed facility have
ranged from nothing to $100, he
says.
The Texas Legislature and the
Board of Regents have to approve
the facility and, most importantly,
the students have to be willing to pay
for it and will have the chance to
vote on the issue, he says.
Corrington says the University of
Texas passed a similar referendum
last year with a 70-percent positive
vote, and many universities around
the country are supporting facilities
of this nature in a similar manner.
“The concept is to have a recre
ational facility available for students
whenever they want to recreate,”
Corrington says.
“If you include state moneys in
there and build facilities for physical
education classes, they’ll have num
ber one priority and you really want
to stay away from that to some de
gree.”
A&M has this situation now, he
says.
There is really no recreational
time or space available in the morn
ings or afternoons.
“We are looking at providing free
recreation time for people in the
mornings, afternoons and, of
course, in the evenings,” he says.
A possible trade-off would be to
have physical education classes in
the new facility from 8 a.m. to 10
a.m., with the rest of the time de
voted to intramurals and recreation.
“Most of these facilities other people
have built more represent the atmo
sphere you would see in a club, as
“From what we’ve been
able to observe . . we are
overbooked. We have
more people wanting to
use the facilities than we
have the facilities to use. ”
— Dennis Corrington, di
rector of intramural-rec
reational sports
opposed to what you see when you
come over to our place — a gymna
sium,” Corrington said.
An atmosphere and a place for so
cialization — neither of which A&M
presently has, he says —are the keys
for attracting people.
Corrington says there are less
than 90,000 square feet of activity
space in the present facilities, used
by approximately 500,000 people
each year.
“From what we’ve been able to ob
serve in the last few years and from
our participation statistics, we are
overbooked,” he says. “We have
more people wanting to use the fa
cilities than we have the facilities to
use.”
The weight room is a good exam
ple — there were 110 people in it at
one time the other day, Corrington
says.
And one out of every five students
at A&M plays intramural softball, he
says.
A senior-level architecture class is
drawing up plans for the proposed
center, but its details will depend on
student preference, Corrington says.
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