The enemy has been continuing to out-produce the narrator’s side and is winning on all fronts. But “we could not now turn back—the search for an irresistible weapon must go on.” The final new weapon is a form of stealth, a space-distorting “exponential field” that allows a ship to approach the enemy unseen and appear in their midst on demand. In the rush to deploy it, snags in operational testing—“a whole flock of minor technical troubles in various pieces of equipment, notably the communications circuits”—are dismissed as trivial.
Apparently, Clarke’s future world has taken the advice of its industry-paid consultants and dispensed with an independent director of test and evaluation.
By the time it is found that the field leaves minute, permanent distortions throughout the ship that become worse every time it is used, to the point where not even the nuts and bolts are interchangeable, it’s too late. Defeat “by the inferior science of our enemies” is inevitable.
Is “Superiority” a parable? Clarke would have known very well how the U.S. 8th Air Force had arrived in Britain in 1942 and how its leaders planned to win the war with precision bombing, thanks to a specific, highly secret weapon-aiming system. It might be a coincidence that Clarke’s arrogant scientist is named Professor-General Norden, but I doubt it.
I visited Bill many years ago. His home was full of books of all kinds. This in part is how he has such a command of the English language, composition, and how to state an argument. All while making it good reading.
That Aviation Week subscription, suddenly doesn't have the value it once had.
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