Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction

Nevala-Lee, Alec. Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. New York: HarperCollins, 2018.

Biographies of the authors named in the title, their relationships, and cultural context for a crucial slice of the history of science fiction writing in the United States (with larger effects). Specific references handled in the Wiki with specific stories. Note however:

On L. Ron Hubbard and (significantly) John W. Campbell and dianetics,[1] introduced to the world by Hubbard "not in Astounding but in the Winter/Spring 1950 issue of The Explorers Journal, the official periodical of the Explorer's Club. [...] Hubbard wanted to attract explorers and men of the world. Instead, he ended up with science fiction fans" (pp. 258-59). Nevala-Lee calls attention to a key sentence in the article.

"While dianetics does not consider the brain as an electronic computing machine except for purposes of analogy, it is nevertheless a member of that class of sciences to which belong General Semantics[2] and cybernetics and [...] forms a bridge between the two." In reality, neither field had played any significant role in Hubbard's work [... earlier], and their inclusion here betrayed how deeply his ideas had been shaped by [Joseph] Winter [Jr.] and, above all, by Campbell. (p. 259)

Hubbard in 1949 or so usually "didn't mention any relationship between the brain and a computer"; Campbell came over to that view.

[...] "Basically, the brain is a relay-computer of the type that the ENIAC[3] is." In a subsequent letter he repeated this point — "The human mind is a calculating machine, a binary digital computer, of immense complexity, and absolutely unrealized capability [...]. (pp. 260-61).

As early as 1938, Campbell had published a letter in Astounding with some lines Nevala-Lee uses in the headnote to ch. 13 (covering 1951-1960) and beginning, italics removed, "Man molded the machine, but the machine is going to mold man" (p. [299]).

RDE, finishing, 4Sep19