Editorial October 26, 1981 ISSUE

Value in the small things

NATHAN A. TALBOT

Big things seem to get the most attention. Lead story on the evening news. Headlines in the newspapers. We're impressed. And no wonder. Budgets in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Descriptions of interstellar space that involve measurements not in trillions of miles but in light-years. Major government decisions and actions that affect millions and millions of people.

What about the little things? As impressive as huge things are, it is useful to keep a balanced view of life. Actually it's often the small that makes the large attainable. Putting people into outer space has been a monumental accomplishment. The implications are enormous. But it was the tiny components in the instruments that enabled the spacecraft to do its job. Transmitting the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica in a mere couple of seconds will be possible only because of silicon chips about the size of your smallest toenail.

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