Related to Speculation regarding the future evolution of mind (c.1850-1940)
Description:

Over the five plays, Shaw oulines a vision of the evolution humanity from a short-lived species that refuses to take life seriously, to a long-lived species with a very different set of priorities than that of its ancestors. The central conceit - that humanity's next stage of evolution will be to live to 300 rather than 70 years - becomes a means by which Shaw is able to speculate on the intrerests and concerns of humans that have been emancipated from an obsession with their imminent death (a problem that Shaw. as he explains in his preface, sees as central to the iniquitous, warlike society that he saw around him during the early decades of the twentieth century).

It is not until the fifth and final play of the pentet that Shaw outlines his thoughts on the future destiny of mind in in any detail. As indicated by its title, the year is AD 31920. Long-lived humanity has evolved an ethos entirely in keeping with its longer life-span, and which is very much at odds with the prior concerns of man. Indeed, these prior concerns are put into sharp relief through the interaction of children and adults ('ancients') in this new society. For a brief time, following their (fully-grown) entrance into the world, individuals pass through an initial stage of psychological development during which they must grapple with the beliefs and fears that they have inherited from their short-lived ancestors. No longer subject to the need to provide for themselves, these fully-grown children cling on to a vision of everlasting love and affection for one another, and express their ideals through the creation of art and by clinging on to their romantic beliefs.

The value of the children's beliefs and art is brought in to question through their interaction with several older members of society at the occasion of a birth. During this interaction, a sculptor, 'Martellus', declares that the images and objects that he has been creating no longer satisfy him. As he explains to the other artists, he no longer seeks to represent beauty through sculpture, as he has come to realise that life itself will always be more beautiful than objects that imitate it:

'MARTELLUS. ... A live ancient is better than a dead statue... Anything alive is better than anything that is only pretending to be alive. [To Arjillax] Your disillusion with your works of beauty is only the beginning of your disillusion with images of all sorts. As your hand became more skilful and your chisel cut deeper, you strove to get nearer and nearer to truth and reality, discarding the fleeting fleshly lure, and making images of the mind that fascinates to the end. But how can so noble an inspiration be satisfied with any image, even an image of the truth? In the end the intellectual conscience that tore you away from the fleeting in art to the eternal must tear you away from art altogether, because art is false and life alone is true.' (257-258)

This abandonment of attempts to represent marks what Shaw characterizes as the maturation of man. As the youth of the future society shed their concerns with objects and representations of all kinds they begin to realise that even their bodies, like the art-object that they have been producing, mere play-things that are of little concern to those who have come into contact with the higher consciousness that maturity brings. As the elders explain:

'THE SHE-ANCIENT. Yes, child: art is the magic mirror you make to reflect your invisible dreams in visible pictures. You use a glass mirror to see your face: you use works of art to see your soul. But we who are older use neither glass mirrors nor works of art. We have a direct sense of life. When you gain that you will put aside your mirrors and statues, your toys and your dolls.

THE HE-ANCIENT. Yet we too have our toys and our dolls. That is the trouble of the ancients.

ARJILLAX. What! The ancients have their troubles! It is the first time I ever heard one of them confess it.

THE HE-ANCIENT. Look at us. Look at me. This is my body, my blood, my brain; but it is not me. I am the eternal life, the perpetual resurrection; but [striking his body] this structure, this organism, this makeshift, can be made by a boy in a laboratory, and is held back from dissolution only by my use of it. Worse still, it can be broken by a slip of the foot, drowned by a cramp in the stomach, destroyed by a flash from the clouds. Sooner or later, its destruction is certain.

THE SHE-ANCIENT. Yes: this body is the last doll to be discarded.' (286-287)

Ultimately, the physical reality of the young members of society gives way to a purely psychological existence, into which material concerns do not enter:

'THE NEWLY BORN. What is your destiny?

THE HE-ANCIENT. To be immortal.

THE SHE-ANCIENT. The day will come when there will be no people, only thought.

THE HE-ANCIENT. And that will be life eternal.' (290)

Ultimately, this mode of existence marks the end of the capacities of the human mind, and the beginning of a new psychological existence inaccessible to minds that remain trapped in individual bodies:

'ECRASIA. Why do the other ancients never come and give us a turn?

THE SHE-ANCIENT. It is difficult for them. They have forgotten how to speak; how to read; even how to think in your fashion. We do not communicate with one another in that way or apprehend the world as you do.

THE HE-ANCIENT. I find it more and more difficult to keep up your language. Another century or two and it will be impossible. I shall have to be relieved by a younger shepherd.' (293)