@PaulHenni @rupertg What happened:
a) Editor John W. Campbell liked a lot of crankish nonsense in his SF—Dean Drive, psionics, dianetics, and so on. So he published a lot of it. But he died in 1971.
b) The Koestler Parapsychology Unit comprehensively examined and debunked it in the 1980s/90s.
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a) Editor John W. Campbell liked a lot of crankish nonsense in his SF—Dean Drive, psionics, dianetics, and so on. So he published a lot of it. But he died in 1971.
b) The Koestler Parapsychology Unit comprehensively examined and debunked it in the 1980s/90s.
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@PaulHenni @rupertg So a formerly semi-respectable SF idea turned into quackery over a 20 year period. And new SFnal chew-toys came along.
Postscript: Campbell was a grotesque racist and authoritarian and I note a lot of overlap between theosophy, belief in the paranormal, and Nazi mysticism.
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Postscript: Campbell was a grotesque racist and authoritarian and I note a lot of overlap between theosophy, belief in the paranormal, and Nazi mysticism.
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@PaulHenni @rupertg The aggressive romantic streak in totalitarianism and racism had an affinity for narratives about psi powers, hidden master races, and spiritualism. (“You can be superior … without showing any outward signs!”) Go figure. *Not* a healthy belief system to base fiction on. /3
@PaulHenni @rupertg Telepathy etc. are still common currency in genre fantasy, and to some extent space opera (Star Wars as Space Wizard fanfic), but not in realist-mode SF. It fits better with lone superhuman hero as a trope than in any realistic future.
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