Beatrice Archer Martin

Welcoming the second Martin grandchild.

by Rod D. Martin
August 17, 2015

This evening we welcome Beatrice Archer Martin, the second Martin grandchild, at 5:42pm, 7 lbs, 13 oz and 20.5 inches long. She is the daughter of our beloved Archer and Elizabeth, and the baby sister of precious Annabelle.

Beatrice will grow up in a world moving faster than she, or anyone else, can grasp. Literally. Hyperloop technology promises ground transit at just under Mach 1. Self-driving cars promise individual ground speeds of 150 mph. In Beatrice's lifetime, scramjets will take us point-to-point anywhere on Earth in two hours flat, and -- with the addition of a small reusable rocket engine -- beyond Earth to space.

The world is about to get a whole lot smaller. Indeed, in Beatrice and Annabelle's lifetimes, we are likely to start speaking of "the worlds."

That's a two-edged sword, of course. The Islamic State would happily make both of them sex slaves and then behead them. They aren't the only ones who would, nor the only ones with a malignant, ex…