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Phanteur, issue 5, May 1948
Page 8
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8 PHANTEUR 8 -------------------------- Say a little more in your Review Column, Don. -- Schroedinger's book sounds interesting; tying quantum mechanics and genetics together is getting way down toward the beginning of things, seems to me. -- I agree with you on the appraisal of PLENUM; it is invariably interesting, and often stimulating. -- And now comes another book tying up two "independent" fields; games and economic behavior. -- The "Epitaph for the Old Orientation" is right on the nose; the trouble is, so few know the funeral has taken place. EL MURMURINGS -- Willie is still bragging, but he does make a few points here and there. I see no reason whatever, though, why one should be called upon to justify FAPA as a hobby, or, having dropped it, make excuses. -- "The Ethics of Electronics" fully justifies all the time you have spent not learning what is being taught in your Radio course. Maybe the Ashley system, which considers a gadget complete when it is conceived, is the best for you, too. (Try hard, and you may be able to figure out of whom I was thinking when I added that "too".) SYNAPSE -- The best thing about the Speer type of Review is also its most serious drawback; it would take almost as much space to dig into the Reviews as Speer requires in writing them; so, we have the frequent comment about interest and enjoyment, but no answering discussion. But don't step on that account, Jack! -- That line in the discussion of "Brave New World" about "The people who really matter" is not only ambiguous; it is almost meaningless; but what I had in mind was the group of people who, in your words, "most influence the future." Are there "people for whose sake society should be designed." If so, who are they? -- Discussion of legal set-up is good; theoretically, it might be possible to provide good legal aid at government expense for the accused in every case, but practically, I doubt if such aid would often be very valuable; the good money would be on the other side. Nearest thing to an exception to this occurs in Military Courts, where successful defensive work may help an officer advance in the Army. -- "Quoteworthy Quotes" are all definitely "quoteworthy" this time, I should say. The College Outline Series quote on Philosophy is no doubt a true statement of how philosophic inquiry should procede, but an awful lot of stuff that passes for philosophic inquiry doesn't follow the rules here laid down. -- Reasons for keeping FAPA out of Amazing are well presented; but now that Rog is a member of FAPA, could anyone who doesn't have his stuff copyrighted do anything about it? Or, for that matter, could one who does have his stuff copyrighted do anything about it? -- "...Wallace...". While my reasoning wasn't along the same lines throughout, and I don't always agree with your reasoning, I came to the same conclusion long ago. Another point, which you may not hold against him, is to be found in his ready acceptance of communist support, possibly with the idea that he can ditch it when and if. He may not know of any Commies who actually advocate violent overthrow of our government; I do, though. At any rate, I think the Commies hurt his cause, and his vote-getting chances, more than they help it. Have you considered the possibility of a liberal R. being nominated though? He would have a better chance to get his proposals through a hostile Congress, seems to me. And there are a couple of rather strong R. candidates at the present writing, who are anathema to the Old Guard; one of them might make the grade. -- Catching Up with Campbell continues to be interesting, and sometimes we agree on certain stories. I often wonder if anybody else uses your indexing system for stf stories. -- After looking at the Future Man on the bacover, I know what is meant by a "prehensile tale." I'd say that SYNAPSE is living up to the SusPro tradition OK. PLENUM -- "The Crackpot and the Scientist" definitely tops this mailing. Probably the hardest of all concepts for the man with little or no training in the scientific method to accept, is the idea that scientific theory is a living, growing thing, not a series of independent, contradictory ideas. Consequently, he is scornful and amused when a "new theory" displaces an "old theory," since he sees no connecting link. And of course, the non-scientist is still a victim of two-valued logic, as you point out. Since I can scarcely qualify as a scientist, it isn't surprising that it took me a long time start thinking fairly straight. I think I've finally started at last, though.
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8 PHANTEUR 8 -------------------------- Say a little more in your Review Column, Don. -- Schroedinger's book sounds interesting; tying quantum mechanics and genetics together is getting way down toward the beginning of things, seems to me. -- I agree with you on the appraisal of PLENUM; it is invariably interesting, and often stimulating. -- And now comes another book tying up two "independent" fields; games and economic behavior. -- The "Epitaph for the Old Orientation" is right on the nose; the trouble is, so few know the funeral has taken place. EL MURMURINGS -- Willie is still bragging, but he does make a few points here and there. I see no reason whatever, though, why one should be called upon to justify FAPA as a hobby, or, having dropped it, make excuses. -- "The Ethics of Electronics" fully justifies all the time you have spent not learning what is being taught in your Radio course. Maybe the Ashley system, which considers a gadget complete when it is conceived, is the best for you, too. (Try hard, and you may be able to figure out of whom I was thinking when I added that "too".) SYNAPSE -- The best thing about the Speer type of Review is also its most serious drawback; it would take almost as much space to dig into the Reviews as Speer requires in writing them; so, we have the frequent comment about interest and enjoyment, but no answering discussion. But don't step on that account, Jack! -- That line in the discussion of "Brave New World" about "The people who really matter" is not only ambiguous; it is almost meaningless; but what I had in mind was the group of people who, in your words, "most influence the future." Are there "people for whose sake society should be designed." If so, who are they? -- Discussion of legal set-up is good; theoretically, it might be possible to provide good legal aid at government expense for the accused in every case, but practically, I doubt if such aid would often be very valuable; the good money would be on the other side. Nearest thing to an exception to this occurs in Military Courts, where successful defensive work may help an officer advance in the Army. -- "Quoteworthy Quotes" are all definitely "quoteworthy" this time, I should say. The College Outline Series quote on Philosophy is no doubt a true statement of how philosophic inquiry should procede, but an awful lot of stuff that passes for philosophic inquiry doesn't follow the rules here laid down. -- Reasons for keeping FAPA out of Amazing are well presented; but now that Rog is a member of FAPA, could anyone who doesn't have his stuff copyrighted do anything about it? Or, for that matter, could one who does have his stuff copyrighted do anything about it? -- "...Wallace...". While my reasoning wasn't along the same lines throughout, and I don't always agree with your reasoning, I came to the same conclusion long ago. Another point, which you may not hold against him, is to be found in his ready acceptance of communist support, possibly with the idea that he can ditch it when and if. He may not know of any Commies who actually advocate violent overthrow of our government; I do, though. At any rate, I think the Commies hurt his cause, and his vote-getting chances, more than they help it. Have you considered the possibility of a liberal R. being nominated though? He would have a better chance to get his proposals through a hostile Congress, seems to me. And there are a couple of rather strong R. candidates at the present writing, who are anathema to the Old Guard; one of them might make the grade. -- Catching Up with Campbell continues to be interesting, and sometimes we agree on certain stories. I often wonder if anybody else uses your indexing system for stf stories. -- After looking at the Future Man on the bacover, I know what is meant by a "prehensile tale." I'd say that SYNAPSE is living up to the SusPro tradition OK. PLENUM -- "The Crackpot and the Scientist" definitely tops this mailing. Probably the hardest of all concepts for the man with little or no training in the scientific method to accept, is the idea that scientific theory is a living, growing thing, not a series of independent, contradictory ideas. Consequently, he is scornful and amused when a "new theory" displaces an "old theory," since he sees no connecting link. And of course, the non-scientist is still a victim of two-valued logic, as you point out. Since I can scarcely qualify as a scientist, it isn't surprising that it took me a long time start thinking fairly straight. I think I've finally started at last, though.
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