Re: This one predicted practical telepathy

On 4/10/2025 3:39 AM, Charles Packer wrote:

On Wed, 9 Apr 2025 23:47:49 -0400, Ahasuerus wrote:
 

On 4/9/2025 9:53 AM, Charles Packer wrote:

On Tue, 8 Apr 2025 11:09:34 -0400 (EDT), Scott Dorsey wrote:
>

Charles Packer  <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:

https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_Quarterly_v02n02_1929-
Spring_slpn/page/n103/mode/1up (or https://tinyurl.com/bp5dwkm4 )
>
is my candidate for having predicted sending information to the human
brain remotely by radio waves if it ever comes to pass. The inventor
therein thinks through the issues of selectivity and of what kinds of
content could be meaningfully transmitted.

>
I just read this story and find it foolish.  If this were actually
possible, it would immediately be taken over by advertising people
beaming spam thoughts into everyone's head.  The author is extremely
optimistic about how such a technology would be used.

>
You read the whole thing? I confess I skimmed it looking for the "good
parts" -- the passages about the telepathy apparatus.
A story by a Russian came out about the same time
https://zapatopi.net/blog/?
post=201506038860.alexander_belyaevs_the_lord_of_the_world (or
https://tinyurl.com/bp52jj8p )
in which the telepathic device did indeed cause mayhem. The appearance
of these two stories at the same time and their sort of mirror image
outcomes I think may be significant. Stay tuned.

>
The "Analysis" section of the linked blog post
(https://tinyurl.com/bp52jj8p) is rather peculiar:
>
The existence of psychotronic mind control has always been an open
secret in Russian society, going as far back as Rasputin at least.
>
Unlike the West, where the aspirational concept of Individualism was,
and is, used to distract people from their induced conformities, the
Soviet faction of the New World Order tried a different approach: an
explicit call for collective thought. As a result they felt less of a
need than their Western Bloc rivals to suppress paranoid samizdat
exposing the psychotronic means of collectivism. "Of course, Comrade
Paranoidsky, psychotronics exists! Is not glorious that which helps the
workers unite?"
>
Consequently, even as the word "psychotronic" is still rarely mentioned
in the West outside of paranoid circles, in Russia there are public
demonstrations against the technology and officials flagrantly show off
mind-control pistols at trade shows. For Russians today, it isn't a
question of whether psychotronics are real, it's a question of "should
my apartment be a psychotronic gulag?"

 I know, I know. I've been browsing this guy's extensive website,
wary that I'm being taken for a ride.

Well, Beliaev's novel does exist -- see https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?1623430 , which says "Abridged serialization in the newspaper Gudok in October-November 1926. First book publication in 1928." The plot outline at https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Властелин_мира_(роман_Беляева) roughly matches the "Synopsis" section of the linked blog post. If your browser doesn't support automatic translation, you can confirm it with Google Translate.