Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 124: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

122 strongly suggests that the methods of thinking applied in that field are the best men have developed so far; they have worked well. This does not mean they’re perfect. If the psionic data is to be made useful, then, it would behoove some- one to study and truly understand the methods of thinking used by the physical scientists, and use the methods of thinking in analyzing psionic data. However ...a powerful mind, given the training of the powerful physical-science methodology, can readily achieve great and real satis- factions in the field of physical science. Results for such a powerful and trained mind would be rapid and sound. On the other hand, there is no visi- ble evidence that application of the abilities of such a competent mind to the psionic field would yield any re- ward whatever—either in personal satisfaction or achievement or finan- cially. The unfortunate result is that be- cause the field hasn’t already been developed, it is not being developed. No sane entity will work without prospect of reward of some kind. Since most people in our culture can see only negative reward in consider- ing psionic factors—and as pointed out above, the rewards would be nega- tive; it would introduce pure noise into a functioning system—it properly appears to most people that considera- tion of psionic functions is unsane. Therefore the common feeling “All mystics are crackpots.” Science fiction is a unique medium, however. That psionic phenomena do exist has been proven many, many times; they can’t be considered in normal channels of work because of the noise effect indicated. However, they can be considered in the fiction- entertainment field, because within ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION that special area, the rewards are positive. If you saw a man deliberately build a complex and delicate machine, spending thousands of dollars on it, and, immediately after completing it he demolished it with equal delibera- tion—there would be three possible explanations : 1. He is insane. 2. He’s engaged in research, and testing the model to destruction. 3. He’s working for the movies. The psionic phenomena represent the very curious situation that they can not be studied as part of normal research programs. Positive results would yield a sudden high noise level in the highly important physical science work! But the phenomena can be studied for “the movies’”—i.e., for entertain- ment purposes, whether personal, for stage, or in stories. Science fiction represents the pecu- liar field wherein the highly competent minds of men highly trained in the use of the powerful thinking tech- niques of science can entertain them- selves and others. In this field, specu- lation about psionics has purely posi- tive values! But it remains very powerfully true that data which is not related is many times of negative, not positive value. Sheer accumulation of data is not merely a waste of time—it’s destructive. On a purely physical basis, the Col- lier brothers who, some years back, smothered to death in the insane mass of trivia they had accumulated over the years, represent a very real cul- tural danger: you can smother in un- related facts. The constant search for more facts can be ultimately stultifying; the search for more relationships is much more difficult, but that alone can make the accumulation of facts useful. THE EpITor. EComichbooks.co im