Notes on 'Terra II'

 

I finally got around to reading the Hilaritas Press edition of Terra II, by Timothy Leary and others. I bought it when it first came out last year but I've had a bunch of books to read. A few notes:

1. This is one of Leary's most visionary books and perhaps it is best read as an inspirational essay, rather than getting hung up on the details, e.g. passages such as "The book you are holding in your  hands is the greatest evolutionary artifact ever produced. It is a DNA signal from Higher Intelligence ... Terra II is now permanently imprinted on your consciousness." 

2. If you do want to get hung up on the details, I would say that on the one hand, Leary obviously worked hard on his research, looking into possible starship propulsion systems and other technical problems. On the other hand, the text glosses over the difficulties and doesn't seem to grasp how wildly ambitious the project is in terms of contemporary technology, i.e. 1974. Maintaining a closed environmental system for a long period of time in a starship is no easy task; Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a novel about his, called Aurora. It is true that Robinson's pessimism is controversial, see the Wikipedia article. 

3. Rasa and his crew did a fine job of producing the book, putting in new space photos and reproducing the artwork well. I also liked Rasa's cover. I did notice a few typos, I will send a list to Rasa.

4. I suggested that Hilaritas use Oz Fritz to write the introduction; I want to claim credit as Oz does an excellent job. Oz has not only read all of the available biographies of Timothy Leary, he has read many related books such as Joanna Harcourt-Smith's memoir. Oz does a good job of providing context for the text, e.g., "Terra II is an escape vessel on multiple levels ... a blueprint for how to get to the stars with the hope that contact would be made with Higher Intelligence."

5. The book is particularly indebted to Carl Sagan; Leary admires Sagan more than Robert Anton Wilson apparently did and is more fair to Sagan than RAW was. Does anyone know if Leary shared this book with Sagan or had any interactions with him?

6. This book would likely benefit from being read at about the same time as RAW's The Starseed Signals, written about the same time and published by Hilaritas for the first time after languishing for many years (chunks of the Starseed book were used for Cosmic Trigger 1.) 

7. I am surprised this is the first time the book has been reprinted, it seems like a major part of Leary's work. Good for Hilaritas.

8. Related Hilaritas podcasts are available with one featuring Wayne Benner and another starring Oz Fritz.