Re: World Contact Day

Charles Packer  <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:

Rudyard Kipling's _Wireless_ (1902). --scott

>
Yes, I learned about that one earlier. It's an important one
for my purposes because it makes a connection with radio
transmissioon, though indirectly.

Yes, and in part it was following Sir Oliver Lodge in that regard.  At
the time most people really didn't get Maxwell's equations which isn't
all that surprising since they were pretty incomprehensible until
Heaviside developed a new notation to simplify them and make them
useful by ordinary engineers.

So at the time a lot of people saw electromagnetic fields as just a
mysterious action at a distance, very much like some form of
telepathy.

Otherwise, SF seems to be
silent on telepathy and the paranormal up until
after John W Campbell -- reportedly a telepathy enthusiast -- came
on the scene. This is surprising since telepathy was in the news
a lot because of experiments promoted by radio broadcasters,
By 1937 there was even a racehorse named Telepathy.

Agreed; I am surprised there is not more out there.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."