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Textbook Behavioural Economics and Finance Michelle Baddeley Ebook All Chapter PDF
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Behavioural Economics
and Finance
Behavioural economics and behavioural finance are rapidly expanding fields that are
continually growing in prominence. While orthodox economic models are built upon
restrictive and simplifying assumptions about rational choice and efficient markets, be-
havioural economics offers a robust alternative using insights and evidence that rest more
easily with our understanding of how real people think, choose and decide. This insight-
ful textbook introduces the key concepts from this rich, interdisciplinary approach to
real-world decision-making.
This new edition of Behavioural Economics and Finance is a thorough extension of the first
edition, including updates to the key chapters on prospect theory; heuristics and bias;
time and planning; sociality and identity; bad habits; personality, moods and emotions;
behavioural macroeconomics; and well-being and happiness. It also includes a number of
new chapters dedicated to the themes of incentives and motivations, behavioural public
policy and emotional trading. Using pedagogical features such as chapter summaries and
revision questions to enhance reader engagement, this text successfully blends economic
theories with cutting-edge multidisciplinary insights.
This second edition will be indispensable to anyone interested in how behavioural
economics and finance can inform our understanding of consumers’ and businesses’ de-
cisions and choices. It will appeal especially to undergraduate and graduate students but
also to academic researchers, public policy-makers and anyone interested in deepening
their understanding of how economics, psychology and sociology interact in driving our
everyday decision-making.
Michelle Baddeley is a behavioural economist and applied economist based at the Uni-
versity of South Australia’s Institute for Choice in Sydney. She is an Honorary Professor
with University College London’s Institute for Global Prosperity, Associate Researcher
with the Cambridge Energy Policy Research Group and Associate Fellow with the Centre
for Science and Policy, University of Cambridge. She has also worked with policy-makers
across a diverse range of themes and her research brings economic insights from applied
economics, behavioural economics, behavioural finance and neuroeconomics to multi-
disciplinary studies.
Behavioural Economics
and Finance
Second Edition
Michelle Baddeley
Second edition published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
The right of Michelle Baddeley to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Typeset in Joanna MT
by codeMantra
To Chris
Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements x
Part I
Microeconomic principles 17
5 Learning 74
Part II
EXTENSIONS: POLICY, NEUROECONOMICS AND BEHAVIOURAL FINANCE 159
Part III
Macroeconomics and financial systems 253
Bibliography 299
Index 331
Figures
For this second edition of Behavioural Economics and Finance, I would like to reiterate my thanks
to all those who supported and advised me for the first edition. My gratitude to the Rout-
ledge commissioning editors for encouraging me to consider a second edition. Very many
thanks to Anna Cuthbert, Cathy Hurren and Maire Harris and all those on the Routledge
production and copy-editing teams for their great work on the second edition – especially
to Cathy Hurren for stepping into the breach when production schedules were looking
unfeasible.
Thank you also to my co-authors Wolfram Schultz, Philippe Tobler and Christopher
Burke, for permission to use some of the images from our publications, and also for the
opportunity to collaborate with them in some exciting neuroeconomic analysis. My grat-
itude also goes to the Leverhulme Trust, who generously sponsored our neuroeconomics
research.
I had a lot of positive feedback on the first edition and thank you to all those col-
leagues, students and others who enjoyed the first edition and found it useful. If I had
not had an enthusiastic response to the first edition, I would not have been inclined to
write a second edition. Last, but not least, my thanks to friends and family – especially to
my parents for their unstinting support and my husband, Chris – for his patience, good
humour and moral support especially as book-writing has taken up a lot of my time and
energy over the past few years.
Chapter 1
example smoking and eating unhealthy food. So overall, behavioural economics develops
more traditional economic models to explore in more depth and detail the balancing acts
that we go through every day when we choose and decide. For the purposes of this book,
behavioural economics will be defined broadly as the subject which attempts to enrich
economic analyses of behavior – grounded as it is in theories about preferences, incen-
tives, decision-making and strategy – with insights from psychology, sociology, cognitive
neuroscience and evolutionary biology.
If every man had a tender regard for another … the jealousy of interest … could no
longer have place; nor would there be any occasion for … distinctions and limits of
property and possession … Encrease to a sufficient degree the benevolence of men …
and you render justice useless … ’tis only from selfishness and the confin’d generosity
of men … that justice derives its origin.
(Hume 1739, pp. 547–8)
The role of the market in solving economic problems might be more complex than Hume
suggests but the psychological forces of benevolence and philanthropy can be justified if
there are market failures such as externalities and free-rider problems. Benevolence does
imply some sort of interdependence amongst people’s utility and this is something that
standard economic analyses of independent, atomistic agents cannot capture but it is a
theme that has received a lot of attention in modern behavioural economics.
A quick history of behaviour al economics 3
to emulate industry leaders. But as each new imitator joins an industry, the opportunities
for new profits from new opportunities will reduce as the swarm of imitators grows too
large. In this way the business cycle is driven by socio-psychological influences. At the
time he was writing, Schumpeter’s insights were groundbreaking but have only recently
found their way into modern behavioural analyses of business behaviour.
and/or affected by strategic interactions between people and firms. Behavioural econom-
ics is another way to illuminate some of the deeper foundations of sub-optimal behaviour.
The degree of divergence between behavioural economic models and standard ne-
oclassical models does vary across behavioural economics. Some would see behavioural
economics as basically consistent with standard neoclassical approaches, with some extra
psychological variables embedded, for example into utility functions, to increase realism,
though at some cost in terms of tractability. For example, Camerer, Loewenstein and
Rabin (2004) argue that behavioural economics
increases the explanatory power of economics by providing it with more realistic psy-
chological foundations … [This] does not imply a wholesale rejection of the neoclassi-
cal approach … [which] provides economists with a theoretical framework that can be
applied to almost any form of economic (and even noneconomic) behavior.
(Camerer, Loewenstein and Rabin 2004, p. 3).
A further complexity is that behavioural economics does draw on insights from many of
the other “tribes” of economic theorists: not all “non-behavioural” economists are neo-
classical economists and there are some particularly strong parallels between behavioural
economics and evolutionary economics, social economics, institutional economics and
heterodox economics. In drawing on insights beyond neoclassical economics, other be-
havioural economists take a more radical approach and would argue that the foundations
of neoclassical economics are badly flawed and need to be replaced with a more funda-
mentally psychological approach to analysing economic decision-making. Earl (2005) sets
out some axiomatic foundations for psychological economics but emphasizes that these
can be expressed “permissively” as tendencies describing what people often do, rather
than as “non-negotiable axioms”. Choices will be fickle, susceptible to random influences
and context, for example with fashions and fads. Consumer and workplace behaviours
may be pathological to some degree, including dysfunctional strategic decision-making
and extreme behaviour including impulsive spending or obsessive-compulsive behaviour.
Some may exhibit these behaviours to a large degree; others in a minor way but it will
mean that our economic decisions will be affected by irrational obsessions and aversions.
Earl’s axiomatic foundations of psychological economics emphasize the importance
of perception and context; the social nature of behaviour; the impacts of non-economic
variables; and the importance of bounded rationality – specifically when information
is too complex for human cognition. Earl’s foundations also include Herbert Simon’s
concept of ‘satisficing’ (that is, finding a satisfactory solution even if it’s not the best
solution); attention biases occurring when attention is not allocated optimally leading to
inconsistencies; and heuristics and biases shaping perceptions and judgments. The latter
will include temporal biases, for example as seen in models of hyperbolic and quasi-
hyperbolic discounting; emotions; impacts of context on decision rules; limited learning
constrained by people’s preconceptions about the world. In addition, he includes patho-
logical behaviours, for example impulsive spending; impacts on choices of personalities
and attitudes, as well as simple preferences; and altruistic choices (Earl 2005).
Axiomatic foundations unify economics and psychology in psychological economics
but Earl argues that economic psychology and psychological economics are different too:
the former involves economists taking subjects traditionally in the psychologists’ preserve
such as addiction and altruism, and analysing them using economic models and concepts.
Key insights from psychology 9
Psychological economics comes from the other direction and involves challenging stand-
ard economic models by embedding insights from psychology to enhance understand-
ing of economic decision-making, for example Frey’s (1997) broad study of motivation
(Earl 2005).
actually do (or don’t do) because it is now possible objectively to measure the physiologi-
cal responses underlying observed action. However, as for psychology more generally, the
early development of new neuroscientific tools has led to the evolution of neuroeconomic
analyses – observable data is no longer confined to what people do; we can also measure
what is going on in their brains and nervous systems whilst they do it, as the neuroeco-
nomic studies explored in this book will show.
Game theory
Many areas of behavioural economics focus on strategic interactions between people and
standard game theoretic tools are used as a starting point in these analyses. Putting game
theory together with behavioural insights produces the large, diverse field known as be-
havioural game theory, surveyed comprehensively by Camerer (2003b) and partly cov-
ered here in the chapters on learning (Chapter 5) and sociality (Chapter 6). In explaining
behavioural game theory, Camerer makes a distinction between games, which are strate-
gic situations, and game theory – which gives explanations for choices. In standard game
theory, there is a divorce of theory and evidence and limited empirical evidence. Camerer
(2003) cites von Neumann and Morgenstern (1944): “the empirical background of eco-
nomic science is definitely inadequate. Our knowledge of the relevant facts of economics
is incomparably smaller than that commanded in physics at the time when mathematici-
sation of that subject was achieved”. Camerer suggests that this gap between theory and
evidence seen in standard game theoretic approaches can be remedied to an extent by
the inclusion of experimental techniques. This can be achieved by starting with classical
game theory – including games that incorporate private information alongside probabil-
istic information about others’ preferences and/or types.
Behavioural game theory can be used to test the standard economists’ hypotheses by
adapting classical game theory (in which people are assumed to be self-interested maximiz-
ers, engaging strategically) to allow for additional behavioural forces, for example limits to
strategic thinking, and attitudes towards others’ payoffs and learning. If it leads to rejections
of predictions of classical game theory, evidence from behavioural game theory can be in-
terpreted in a number of ways, particularly as much of it is based on experimental evidence:
violations could reflect irrationality or weaker versions of rationality (e.g. as explored by
Herbert Simon in his analyses of bounded and procedural rationality); “other-regarding”
preferences (e.g. for reciprocity, equity, etc.); strategic thinking and/or reputation building.
For the purposes of this book, the reader is assumed to have a basic working knowl-
edge of game theory and its key concepts including Nash equilibrium, mixed strategy
Behaviour al tool s and methods 11
equilibrium, reaction functions and backward induction. For the learning chapter in par-
ticular, it will be useful to know some classic games from standard introductory econom-
ics, for example the prisoner’s dilemma, battle of the sexes, buyer-seller and stag-hunt
games. For those who would like to learn more about game theory to enhance their
understanding of related areas of behavioural economics, some good introductions are
listed in the Further Reading section.
Experimental economics
Empirical testing of behavioural economics models uses a range of data and some data is
similar to data used in standard economic analysis. In terms of the methodological tools
used by behavioural economists, there have been some innovations and data-based sta-
tistical and econometric analyses are increasingly being supplemented by experimental
evidence. In fact, some areas of behavioural economics have emerged from experimental
economics. Behavioural models can explain experimental results that, for one reason or
another (and there is plenty of controversy about the reasons), do not fit with simple pre-
dictions from standard theory.
Vernon L. Smith pioneered the use of experiments in economics and initially used
market experiments as a pedagogical device in his principles of economics lectures (Smith
2003a). Experimental methods can be integral to behavioural economics because they
enable close observation of actual choices under carefully controlled conditions, thus
allowing the experimenter to abstract from ordinary complicating factors. If properly
constructed, experiments can allow us properly to control conditions so as to capture the
real drivers of behaviour.
The main advantage of an experimental approach is it gives us new types of data to il-
luminate economic decision-making that will, in some circumstances, be better than the
“happenstance” data of conventional economics/econometrics. Experimental methods
are also used in neuroeconomic studies particularly when the tight analytical structure
of game theoretic methods can be used to complement a wide range of neuroscientific
techniques (to be explored in more detail in Chapters 11 and 12). This enables the con-
struction of neuroeconomic experiments that can be conducted quickly, efficiently and
neatly to test neuroeconomic hypotheses clearly.
Experimental investigations can however be fraught with problems, as explored by
Smith (1994), Binmore (1999) and others. Experimental designs must be “clean” with
proper controls, clear and simple instructions and clear incentives. Results in experi-
mental context can be conflated with impacts from methodological variables (e.g. repeti-
tion, anonymity); demographic factors (gender, age, socioeconomic group, etc.); cultural
factors; game structure and/or labelling and context. Designing a clean, uncomplicated
experiment is not easy to achieve and needs a lot of careful thought.
One aspect of experimental design that attracts strong views from economists is the
issue of deception. Is it a methodological problem? In principle, incorporating decep-
tion into experiments conflicts with the focus in experimental economics on truthful-
ness as an essential element in “clean” experiments. On the other hand, particularly in
neuroeconomic experiments where the experimental environment necessarily is highly
constrained, it is often impossible to avoid some limited deception. Sanfey et al.’s (2003)
fMRI study of social emotions (explored in Chapter 8) used a contrived offer algorithm in
which the experimental subjects were told that they were responding to decisions from
12 Introducing behaviour al economics
real people when in fact they were responding to offers generated by the experimenters.
Sanfey et al. argued that their deception was necessary, given the “heavy logistic demands”
of fMRI studies and did not affect/confound the interpretation of results. The use of
limited deception, and only where essential, is increasing in neuroeconomic studies, es-
pecially imaging studies, because the experimental context is so restricted by technical,
logistical and financial considerations. Psychologists sometimes have a more flexible atti-
tude to deception and will incorporate carefully constrained deception when necessary. It
is possible that the issue of deception in experiments is a question of experimental norms
rather than objective limitations from deception.
In addition to the challenge of designing a clean experiment, it is also important to
recognize the limitations of experimental evidence. These limitations are likely to be less
for natural and field experiments where researchers are observing real behavior in which
real choices drive real-world consequences for the people being studied. DellaVigna and
Malmendier’s (2004) study of gym membership, explored in Chapter 10, is an example
of a natural experiment. Aside from these types of natural/field experiments, results from
experiments may suffer from hypothetical bias – experimental subjects may behave in
a very different way when they know that they are not making a real-world decision.
Results may have limited external validity and may not be generalizable to the world
outside the lab. This may reflect the selection of experimental subjects, especially as ex-
perimental subjects are often university students whose behaviour may not represent the
behaviour of people outside an academic environment, such as a university. Results from
behavioural experiments have been generalized mainly by increasing the size of payoffs.
Richer, more sophisticated, experiments do need to be designed if insights from behav-
ioural experiments are to be applied more widely. Some experiments do have inherent
external validity, including natural experiments in which people’s ordinary behaviour is
already controlled by the situation in which they find themselves. In natural experiments,
the experimenter is not interfering and distorting decisions.
Field experiments are used frequently in behavioural development economics – often via
the adoption of randomized controlled trials incorporating techniques developed for med-
ical/pharmaceutical testing. Randomised controlled trials are used to capture the impact of
different “treatments” or policy interventions. They are constructed by randomly selecting
some groups for an intervention. Other groups are used as control groups. Comparing the
behaviour of treatment groups and control groups enables quantification of treatment effects.
There are potential ethical problems with randomized controlled trials because some groups
get access to potential beneficial interventions whilst others do not. This issue is addressed in
medical trials by abandoning the random allocation of people into treatment groups versus
control groups as soon as strongly significant impacts from interventions are identified.
Experimental economics is also limited by problems with experimental incentive
structures. In real-world situations people face complex but often very salient incentives
and it can be hard for an experimenter to identify meaningful incentive structures, par-
ticularly if subjects initially motivated by intellectual curiosity, for example, are then dis-
tracted and de-motivated by (perhaps insultingly) small experimental payments. G neezy
and Rustichini (2000a, 2000b) have explored this problem in arguing that extrinsic mo-
tivations such as money and other concrete rewards crowd out intrinsic motivations,
including intellectual curiosity and a desire to be helpful. De-motivated experimental
subjects can distort experimental results.
The structure of Behavioural Economics and Finance 13
The behavioural economics literature on its own is vast and so there is not the space
for a detailed account of experimental economics too. There are however already a few
comprehensive accounts of experimental economics and for those interested to find out
more, some readings are suggested in Further Reading.
A note on mathematics
Mathematical exposition characterizes modern economics and this is not necessarily a bad
thing if mathematical and intuitive explanations complement each other. Sometimes it is
easier to explain things using simple equations than dense text, and many behavioural
economists have set their models out using some (often quite straightforward) mathe-
matics. Other times it is more meaningful to express things in words than in e quations –
especially as the human brain is not always well built to process mathematical analysis.
14 Introducing behaviour al economics
Given the wide range of attitudes towards mathematical analysis, in the interests of pre-
senting the material in a way which is engaging to as many readers as possible, the main
text is written in non-mathematical language. Where it is relevant and to cater for those
who prefer the simplicity of mathematical analysis, the essential principles and models
are separated into chapter Appendices. The essential intuition of all models will be cov-
ered in the main text of each chapter and so readers can ignore the mathematical trans-
lations if they prefer.
Chapter summary
•• Behavioural economics is a wide discipline that draws on a range of other subjects
from the social and natural sciences – including psychology, sociology, neuroscience
and evolutionary biology.
•• Whilst it has only recently developed a critical mass within economic theory and pub-
lic policy-making, behavioural economics draws on long traditions in economics –
from Adam Smith and Jeremy Bentham through to John Maynard Keynes, George
Katona and Hyman Minsky.
•• Behavioural economists rethink what economists usually assume about behaviour –
not by assuming that behaviour is irrational, but by providing a more realistic analysis
of how real people decide and choose, replacing the models associated with modern
mainstream economics, which assume that people decide as if they are mathematical
maximizers.
•• Behavioural economics draws on a wide range of insights from economics more
generally – including ideas about strategic decision-making from game theory, in-
sights from theories of learning and some themes from information economics and
labour economics.
Revision questions
1. How does behavioural economics differ from other areas of economics? How is it
similar?
2. How do behavioural economists’ descriptions of how people choose and decide
differ from the descriptions of behaviour highlighted in mainstream economics?
3. From the different economists introduced in this chapter, who do you think has had
the most influence on modern behavioural economics and why?
4. Can insights from behavioural economics help ordinary people to decide and choose
more effectively in their everyday decision-making? If so, how and why? Illustrate
with examples.
Further reading
Some introductions to behavioural economics and finance
Binmore K (1992) Fun and Games: A Text on Game Theory, Lexington MA: Heath & Co.
Binmore K (2007) Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Camerer C (2003) Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments in Strategic Interaction, New York:
Russell Sage Foundation.
Dixit A and Skeath S (2004) Games of Strategy (2nd edition), New York: WW Norton.
Kreps DM (1990) Game Theory and Economic Modelling, New York: Oxford University Press.
Osborne MJ (2004) An Introduction to Game Theory, New York: Oxford University Press.
Experimental economics
Kagel JH.and Roth AE (eds) (1995) The Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton:
Princeton University Press.
Samuelson L (2005) ‘Economic theory and experimental economics’, Journal of Economic
Literature, 43(1), 65–107.
Selten R (2007) Economics Lab: An Introduction to Experimental Economics, Abingdon, Oxford:
Routledge.
Smith VL (1994) ‘Economics in the laboratory’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8(1), 113–31.
Psychology
Microeconomic principles
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"I told you," he said to Halfrich, "Just a blowhole, that's all."
"The blips on the record moved," said Halfrich. "There was more than
this."
"Look around you!" cried Kellard desperately. "Do you see anything
moving, anything that could move? You were wrong, Halfrich. Do you
have to keep us here until we all die, because you can't admit you're
wrong?"
Halfrich hesitated. "I wasn't wrong. You're still lying. But we'll go back
to the ship and wait."
They turned their backs on the fire-fountain, and Kellard felt the sweat
pouring on his forehead. It hadn't happened this time, and they
couldn't wait forever, they would have to go away and—
Morgenson's voice chattered in their ears. "Blips showing, coming—"
And then he suddenly yelled, "I see them! They—"
Halfrich swung around with ponderous swiftness. There was nothing
between them and the fire-fountain, nothing around the spouting
flames.
"Above you, coming down!" shouted Morgenson. "My God, what—?"
Kellard slowly raised his head. Because he knew what to look for, he
saw them while Halfrich was still gazing around searching.
They came flashing down out of the sky. There were four of them this
time—no, five. They were like five individual swirls of shining light, so
bright that the sun-bleached heavens seemed to darken around
them.
Halfrich said bewilderedly, "I don't see—"
Kellard pointed upward. "There."
"Those flakes of flame?"
"Not flakes of flame," said Kellard. "They are the children of the
stars."
Halfrich went rigid, staring upward. And now Kellard knew that there
was no more hope. No hope at all.
The five bright things had flashed down toward the great fire-fountain.
They plunged into it, out of it, climbed swift as the eye could follow,
racing up its mighty geyser, frolicking in it joyously. The fountain raved
higher and the five sped up and whirled and danced upon its rising
plume, and Kellard thought that they were laughing.
In and out of the leaping fires they plunged, and then one of them
veered down toward the place where Halfrich and Kellard stood.
There was something so humanly purposeful in its sudden movement
that Halfrich stepped back.
"Stand still," said Kellard.
"But—" Halfrich protested.
"They won't hurt us," said Kellard, his voice flat and dull. "They're
friendly, playful, curious. Stand still."
And now all five of the flashing flames were around them, darting,
recoiling, then gliding forward again to touch their heat-armor with
questing tendrils of living force, living light.
Halfrich spoke, trying to keep his voice steady but forming the words
in a choked fashion.
"Something—in my mind—"
"They're telepathic, in a way you can't even imagine," said Kellard.
"And they're curious. They're curious about us, what we are, how we
think. They can merge minds with us, somehow." And he added, with
a last cruel impulse of dying anger, "You wanted to know. Now know."
He had time to say nothing more before the impact hit him, just as it
had that other time, the full stunning shock of unearthly minds
interlocking with his own, searching out his thoughts and memories.
Curious, yes. Like children who have found strange, ungainly
creatures and wish to know how they live. And as they entered his
mind, Kellard's mind entered theirs, fused with them, and there was
again the dizzying whirl of memories and feelings that were not his
own, that his different, more brutishly physical nature could never
apprehend more than dimly.
But that half-apprehension was staggering. He was no longer Hugh
Kellard, a man with flesh and bones who had been born on an air-
drowned heavy planet named Earth.
He was one of the children of the stars.
His memory stretched far back, for his life was almost unlimited in
time. For long and long beyond human comprehension he had lived
with his companions the strange and beautiful life of their kind.
Born of the stars, of the unimaginable forces, pressures,
temperatures, atomic conditions within the mighty suns. Born, as the
end product of an evolutionary chain almost as old as the universe
itself, a grouping of photons that grew toward consciousness, toward
individuality and volition. Their bodies were force, rather than matter,
their senses had nothing to do with sight or hearing, their movement
was an effortless flash and glide as fast as the photons of light itself.
With the other kind of life in the universe, the heavy slow-moving
things of matter that grew upon the comparatively cold, dark planets,
they had had nothing to do at all. They were of the suns, not the
planets, and those chill worlds of fixed, solid matter so repelled them
that they would not even approach most of them.
Star-child, star-child, at home in the bursting splendors of the stellar
fires, and able to move like light from star to star. And again Kellard
felt the agony of that ecstasy that was his in this shared memory.
"We things of matter, we men, who thought that space and the stars
would be ours—"
But how could the wide universe belong to solid, heavy, physical
creatures who must painfully move in bubbles of air, who crawled
between the petty planets encased in metal tombs, who could not
even approach the glories of the great suns?
No, the ecstasy was one that men would never know except at
secondhand through this brief contact! The glorious rush together of
the star-children through the vast abysses, drinking up the energy of
the radiation about them. The audacious and dangerous coasting
along the shores of dark nebulae, racing the lumbering comets and
leaving them behind, on until you felt through all your photons the
beckoning warmth of the star you approached. Ignore the cinders
called planets that creep around it, speed faster, faster, brothers, the
way has been long but we are almost there! And now the radiation
that was so weak in the outer darks is strong and lusty-roaring, and
the great prominences reach out like arms to gather us in. The shock,
the joy, of the first plunge once more into the star. Dive deep,
brothers, deep through the outer fires into the throbbing solar
furnaces where the atoms are hammered as in forges, changing,
shifting their shapes, exploding into force.
Spin in the vortices of the great stellar tornadoes, fling off and fall
headlong and then dive laughing in again. Search for the others of
your kind, if there are none here there will be at the next star. Up
again, out of the boiling fires, and then drift quiet, dreaming, in the
pearly glow of the corona, endless afternoon of warmth and light and
peace.
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