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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 11, Summer 1946

Page 272

272     FANTASY COMMENTATOR

Space, tesseract-men, Plane People, and the like. But pseudo explanations of how it's done should become increasingly difficult as the tools of semantic criticism become diffused among the masses of readers.
33. Adventures in Size: The atomic microcosm is already twenty years out of date, and has not been used much by Campbell's magazine. With that discredited, macrocosm also must disappear from serious extrapolating. Mere littleness, down tot he limit set by the largeness of molecules and smallness of neurones, etc., can continue to provide story ideas, so long as the authors can device means of shrinking their characters to Lilliputian size with some pretence of plausibility. Enlarging them, on the other hand, must be relegated to the comic magazines; the structural weakness that goes with large size will prevent the magnified creatures from doing most of the things that go to make up a story.
34. Extrapolations on Psychology and Biology Relative to Men: After behaviorists and others have demonstrated the exact mechanism of thought, there will be little room for extrapolating on hypnotism and similar phenomena. My private belief is that extra-sensory perception is due to be exploded. If there actually is anything in telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, etc., it should have been delimited by the time of this far future we're talking about. Perhaps there will remain some area of uncertainty for latter-day science-fictionists to disport in. Mind transference must go out the window as indefensible psychologically and semantically, except in the form of brain transplantation. Supermen are an ever-continuing possibility for speculation. Even if the race pulls itself out of its present bog and evolves higher, it will always be able to imagine a human being superior to itself. Rejuvenation and various types of super-surgery will probably be commonplace eventually; in actual immortality and such tasks as resuscitation of the six- seconds - dead, indefinite approximation of a limit should continue to challenge scientists. Androids of the type built up from the elements haven't appeared much of late; perhaps the reason is that control of natural processes is more promising. Designing flesh-and-blood robots and other specialized anthropoids, and the consequences on ethical thinking, looks like an interesting field.
35. Extrapolations on Psychology and Biology Not Relating to Man: Animals scientifically aided to attain a degree of intelligence look interesting. We are not likely to fear human termites or other superbugs on Earth any more. Strange creatures can be invented for other worlds, but such stories will become largely assimilated by tales of further astronomical exploration. Concerning non-carbon life, we should first be clear as to what we mean by life, and then examine the possibilities of lifelong phenomena arising in crystals, force - vortexes, and so on. I'm not well enough informed to guess.
Concerning extrapolations on chemistry, physics and technology we must go into more detail.
36.1 Robots: For the most part these will pass out of fiction into common life. Thinking machines, like supermen, may remain in the imagination one jump ahead of reality.
36.2 Gadgets That Do Common Things: Unless he changes greatly, homo sapiens will always seek simpler ways of doing some things, even after he rebels against mechanization of certain beneficial activities. However, it is possible even today to invent any of large classes of gadgets on demand, and we don't consider Popular Mechanics a science-fiction magazine. This sphere will be greatly enlarged in the future.
36.5 Rays: Hardly a whisper has been heard about rays for a long time. Get the electromagnetic spectrum well mapped out, with characteristics as predictable as in the table of elements, and there go your rays--unless you want to say that special combinations of vibrations will do peculiar things, or that there may be something in the "Sixth Column" idea bout untouched fields of elec-

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272 FANTASY COMMENTATOR Space, tesseract-men, Plane People, and the like. But pseudo explanations of how it's done should become increasingly difficult as the tools of semantic criticism become diffused among the masses of readers. 33. Adventures in Size: The atomic microcosm is already twenty years out of date, and has not been used much by Campbell's magazine. With that discredited, macrocosm also must disappear from serious extrapolating. Mere littleness, down tot he limit set by the largeness of molecules and smallness of neurones, etc., can continue to provide story ideas, so long as the authors can device means of shrinking their characters to Lilliputian size with some pretence of plausibility. Enlarging them, on the other hand, must be relegated to the comic magazines; the structural weakness that goes with large size will prevent the magnified creatures from doing most of the things that go to make up a story. 34. Extrapolations on Psychology and Biology Relative to Men: After behaviorists and others have demonstrated the exact mechanism of thought, there will be little room for extrapolating on hypnotism and similar phenomena. My private belief is that extra-sensory perception is due to be exploded. If there actually is anything in telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, etc., it should have been delimited by the time of this far future we're talking about. Perhaps there will remain some area of uncertainty for latter-day science-fictionists to disport in. Mind transference must go out the window as indefensible psychologically and semantically, except in the form of brain transplantation. Supermen are an ever-continuing possibility for speculation. Even if the race pulls itself out of its present bog and evolves higher, it will always be able to imagine a human being superior to itself. Rejuvenation and various types of super-surgery will probably be commonplace eventually; in actual immortality and such tasks as resuscitation of the six- seconds - dead, indefinite approximation of a limit should continue to challenge scientists. Androids of the type built up from the elements haven't appeared much of late; perhaps the reason is that control of natural processes is more promising. Designing flesh-and-blood robots and other specialized anthropoids, and the consequences on ethical thinking, looks like an interesting field. 35. Extrapolations on Psychology and Biology Not Relating to Man: Animals scientifically aided to attain a degree of intelligence look interesting. We are not likely to fear human termites or other superbugs on Earth any more. Strange creatures can be invented for other worlds, but such stories will become largely assimilated by tales of further astronomical exploration. Concerning non-carbon life, we should first be clear as to what we mean by life, and then examine the possibilities of lifelong phenomena arising in crystals, force - vortexes, and so on. I'm not well enough informed to guess. Concerning extrapolations on chemistry, physics and technology we must go into more detail. 36.1 Robots: For the most part these will pass out of fiction into common life. Thinking machines, like supermen, may remain in the imagination one jump ahead of reality. 36.2 Gadgets That Do Common Things: Unless he changes greatly, homo sapiens will always seek simpler ways of doing some things, even after he rebels against mechanization of certain beneficial activities. However, it is possible even today to invent any of large classes of gadgets on demand, and we don't consider Popular Mechanics a science-fiction magazine. This sphere will be greatly enlarged in the future. 36.5 Rays: Hardly a whisper has been heard about rays for a long time. Get the electromagnetic spectrum well mapped out, with characteristics as predictable as in the table of elements, and there go your rays--unless you want to say that special combinations of vibrations will do peculiar things, or that there may be something in the "Sixth Column" idea bout untouched fields of elec-