The Universe -- or Nothing, by Meyer 
Moldeven 
 
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Title: The Universe -- or Nothing 
Author: Meyer Moldeven 
 
Release Date: April 25, 2006 [eBook #18257] 
Language: English 
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) 
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNIVERSE -- OR 
NOTHING*** 
Copyright 1984 Meyer Moldeven 
 
THE UNIVERSE -- or nothing 
by Meyer Moldeven 
 
Copyright 1984 Meyer Moldeven 
[email protected] This work is under a 
Creative Commons License.
Table Of Contents 
THE UNIVERSE -- or nothing Table Of Contents About Meyer Moldeven Also by 
Meyer Moldeven The Preface The Prologue 
Chapter ONE 
 
Chapter TWO 
 
Chapter THREE 
 
Chapter FOUR 
 
Chapter FIVE 
 
Chapter SIX 
 
Chapter SEVEN 
 
Chapter EIGHT 
 
Chapter NINE 
 
Chapter TEN 
 
Chapter ELEVEN
Chapter TWELVE 
 
Chapter THIRTEEN 
 
Chapter FOURTEEN 
 
Chapter FIFTEEN 
 
Chapter SIXTEEN 
 
Chapter SEVENTEEN 
 
Chapter EIGHTEEN 
 
Chapter NINETEEN 
 
Chapter TWENTY 
 
Chapter TWENTY 
-ONE 
Chapter TWENTY 
-TWO
Chapter TWENTY 
-THREE 
Chapter TWENTY 
-FOUR 
Chapter TWENTY 
-FIVE 
Chapter TWENTY 
-SIX 
Chapter TWENTY 
-SEVEN 
Chapter TWENTY 
-EIGHT 
Chapter TWENTY 
-NINE 
Chapter THIRTY 
 
Chapter THIRTY 
-ONE 
Chapter THIRTY 
-TWO 
Chapter THIRTY 
-THREE 
Chapter THIRTY
-FOUR 
Chapter THIRTY 
-FIVE 
Chapter THIRTY 
-SIX 
Chapter THIRTY 
-SEVEN 
Chapter THIRTY 
-EIGHT 
Chapter THIRTY 
-NINE 
Chapter FORTY 
 
Chapter FORTY 
-ONE 
Chapter FORTY 
-TWO 
Chapter FORTY 
-THREE 
Chapter FORTY 
-FOUR 
Chapter FORTY 
-FIVE
Chapter FORTY 
-SIX Epilogue Afterwords Appendix The References Words With(Out) Diacritics 
Creative Commons License about "zen markup language" 
 
About Meyer Moldeven 
Meyer (Mike) Moldeven was a civilian logistics technician with the United States Air 
Force from 1941 until 1974. He was an aircraft emergency survival equipment specialist 
in the Pacific Area during World War II and a technical writer for several years 
afterwards. During the Cold War he transferred to a USAF base in North Africa where he 
developed logistics plans for USAF-NATO emergency maintenance of disabled aircraft 
that would land along the North African coast after returning from missions in any future 
war with the USSR. During the U.S. post-Sputnik initiatives to create a national space 
program, he critiqued aerospace industries' logistics concepts on future space systems 
organization, infrastructure and support. Among the studies he critiqued was 'Space 
Logistics, Operations, Maintenance and Rescue' (Project SLOMAR). During the Viet 
Nam War, he was the senior civilian in the Inspector General's Office at McClellan Air 
Force Base, a major logistics installation near Sacramento, California. As part of his 
'added' duties during 'Viet Nam' Mike was a hotline volunteer in a suicide prevention 
center and consequently, an advocate for professionally-staffed 'suicide prevention' 
capabilities throughout the entire Department of Defense. He compiled documentation, 
published, and widely distributed copies of his book, "Military-Civilian Teamwork in 
Suicide Prevention" (1971, 1985 and 1994.) Mike's updated essay on suicide prevention 
in the U.S. Armed Forces has been included in his collection of memoirs, "Hot War/Cold 
War -- Back-of-the-Lines Logistics", which is at: 
http://hometown.aol.com/yarnspinner7191/ myhomepage/military.html 
 
Also by Meyer Moldeven 
Military-Civilian Teamwork in Suicide Prevention Write Stories to Me, Grandpa! A 
Grandpa's Notebook 
 
The Preface 
"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today 
and the reality of tomorrow." -- Dr. Robert H. Goddard 
"There is no way back into the past; the choice, as H. G. Wells once said, is the universe 
-- or nothing. Though men and civilizations may yearn for rest, for the dream of the 
lotus-eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the 
great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of 
our race will be drawing to its close." -- Arthur C. Clarke
The Prologue 
The Present 
A conclusion in the Report to the Club of Rome: The Limits to Growth states: "...within a 
time span of less than 100 years with no major change in the physical, economic, or 
social relationships that have traditionally governed world development, society will run 
out of the nonrenewable resources on which the industrial base depends. When the 
resources have been depleted, a precipitous collapse of the economic system will result, 
manifested in massive unemployment, decreased food production, and a decline in 
population as the death rate soars. There is no smooth transition, no gradual slowing 
down of activity; rather, the economic system consumes successively larger amounts of 
the depletable resources