Of Two Minds

"Space Mirror" by Edmond Hamilton (click image to enlarge)

In a recent blog post, I mentioned in passing the science fiction problem of protecting spacecraft from collisions with meteoroids. The 1931 story "The Jameson Satellite" by Neil R. Jones (in Amazing Stories) made use of a Super-Duper™ "radium ray" that would repulse all approaching meteoroids.

Znamya

I also recently blogged about "The Conquest of Life", a story by Otto Binder that was published in the August 1937 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. In that issue was a second story by Binder, one by John Campbell and "Space Mirror" by Edmond Hamilton. I could not resist the opportunity to read most of the August 1937 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Solar Power in 1937. In "Space Mirror", Edmond Hamilton imagined a future time in which a 300 mile wide mirror would be constructed in Earth orbit and then be used to send solar energy to the people of Earth. Hamilton credited Hermann Oberth's work as inspiring the story "Space Mirror".

Blofeld's space weapon

Hamilton assured his nervous readers that the giant orbital mirror was protected from meteoroids by a "protonic barrier". The reflected light from Hamilton's imagined mirror was focused on an electricity generating station in Antarctica which could supply Earthlings with all their energy needs. 

I've long wondered why Isaac Asimov made space-based solar energy collectors an integral part of his imagined future of positronic robots. Asimov admitted that it would be possible to trace most of the ideas in his science fiction stories to various stories by other writers that he had previously read. 

Star Wars

Asimov's solar energy harvesting involved converting energy from sunlight into a convenient form of electromagnetic radiation (microwaves) that could be efficiently "beamed" to Earth. Hamilton simply used a giant mirror to reflect light from the Sun to Earth without any space-based converter. 

In the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, viewers were "treated" to the magical science of using diamonds to convert sunlight into a ray beam that could be aimed at Earth and used as a destructive weapon. 

In "Space Mirror", Hamilton told his readers that there were natives of the planet Mercury who wanted to invade Earth and take up residence there (here!). To facilitate the invasion of Earth by the folks from Mercury, they tried to take control of the Space Mirror and use it as a weapon against the people of Earth. 

interior art for "Space Mirror"

However, Agent James Bond Rab Crane of the Terrestrial Secret Service comes to the rescue and derails the plan of the invasion force from Mercury, using the Space Mirror to destroy the invading fleet and saving the people of Earth. Whew!

I wonder if President Reagan read "Space Mirror" as a young man, igniting his interest in Sci Fi space defense systems.

Hamilton was audacious in featuring humanoid aliens from Mercury, a planet with no atmosphere and temperatures swinging between -170C (night) and +400C (day). However, nothing could prevent story tellers from imagining that every planet from Mercury to Uranus was populated by human-like creatures. And don't forget all those moons and asteroids!

a shleath (bottom); angry protoplasm

"The Double Minds" by John W. Campbell was part of a series of stories featuring Penton and Blake. Campbell set the story on Ganymede, which has an average surface temperature of about -160C. Penton had (in a previous adventure) learned how to read minds when he visited Mars. Using telepathy, Penton was able to quickly learn the native language that is spoken by the 7-foot-tall P'holkuun of Ganymede. When he walks on stage, P'holkuun is wearing a Shaloor uniform. 

At the start of the story as told by Campbell, Penton and Blake are already on Ganymede and sitting in jail. The jailor is a Lanoor. After readers learn about Penton's telepathic connection to P'holkuun which in "five minutes" allowed him to learn the Lanoorian language and P'holkuun's political views, P'holkuun must then engage in a verbal explanation of the difference between the Shaloor and the Lanoor.

interior art for "The Double Minds"

 Brain Science. P'holkuun explains that in a Lanoor, only one half of the brain is actively used for thinking. Ten years before the arrival of Penton and Blake, a technique was found that allowed use of both sides of a Lanoor's brain for reasoning; such "double-brain" folks are called the Shaloor. P'holkuun states that a Shaloor is "over 10,000 times more keen-minded than a Lanoor".  

The clever Shaloor want to learn the secrets of the spacecraft that brought Penton and Blake to Ganymede. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Scientific Adventure.
With nothing better to do in their jail cell, Penton uses the Martian technique of "hypnotic teaching" to teach Blake the Lanoorian language. Doing so takes 5 minutes. The Martian telepathy and alien neuroscience is cool, but you can't have much of an adventure while sitting in jail. Penton talks the jailor into supplying some chemicals that can be used to dissolve the wall of the prison and then Penton and Blake walk out of the jail. 

Hold on to your hat! Clearly Campbell is not going to let anything (even prison walls) stand in the way of a rollicking adventure on Ganymede. Penton and Blake stroll out into the Ganymede city, their only problem being that the air is a bit low in oxygen. Since it is night, nobody notices the two humans walking through the city streets.

in the Ekcolir Reality

In the Star Trek episode "A Piece of the Action" an attempt was made to create a funny scene with Captain Kirk driving an old-fashioned car on an alien planet. In "The Double Minds", Campbell has Penton and Blake steal a car, but they have no idea how to drive it and soon crash.

There in no electricity on Ganymede. Penton is nearly captured by a grethlanth, a kind of Ganymedian police dog, but he is able to use a spark from the battery in his electric flashlight to drive it off. Electricity is unknown on Ganymede where collections of glowing bacteria are used for lighting.

In the 1930s, no prisoners are ever searched. In particular, aliens arriving from outer space are simply thrown into a jail cell and allowed to keep any Hi Tek™ devices that they have in their pockets. I have to confess: it is very painful to read these old "Thrilling" Wonder Stories, but I persist in doing so because of my interest in understanding how Isaac Asimov was able to read them all and then, with his valuable experience as a science student, begin writing his own style of (slightly) more plausible stories.

Science: June 25th, 2999

P'holkuun is some sort of Lanoorian special agent who always knows what the Shaloor are doing. P'holkuun tells Penton and Blake that their spaceship is at the Palace of the Shaloor and being guarded by shleath, ameboid creatures created by the Shaloor. P'holkuun has been planning an attack on the Shaloor and begins working with Penton and Blake. Penton shows the Lanoorians how to make small devices that deliver 50 volt shocks and are powerful enough to defeat the dreaded shleath.

Only after their attack on the Palace is underway (and after several days of telepathic contact with P'holkuun) does Penton finally learn from P'holkuun that although the Shaloor are brilliant thinkers, their altered brains cannot correctly process sensory information. Penton's sonic screwdriver flashlight is atomic powered, so he can use it for all sorts of things, including a quick job of melting the metal bolts that bar their way into the inner sanctum of the Palace. With the help of their Lanoorian pals, Penton and Blake fight their way through the Palace and reach their spaceship. The End.

the story behind "The Double Minds" by John Campbell

Pseudoscience Adventure. One of the interesting features in Thrilling Wonder Stories was that it had a section called "The story behind the story". Campbell wrote the blurb shown to the right on this page. In 1937, Campbell was busy propagating the false idea that people could increase their "brain capacity". Years later, he would champion Dianetics as a means to unleash the "infinite" power of the mind.

Laboratory Magic!

Iron World. Also in the August 1937 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories was "The Iron World" by Otis Kline. The story begins in the year 2990 with Hugh Grimes at work in his laboratory where he is trying to perfect a method for transferring his mind into an artificial brain. After reading this issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine, I'm now sad that there was never a pulp science fiction magazine called "Laboratory Magic". 😕

thrilling interior art

Grimes is described as being a robot, but his robotic body is controlled by his biological brain which was extracted from his biological body back in the year 2000. Apparently a human brain can exist in the "glass skull case" of a robot for 1000 years, but then it will grow old and die. Grimes is pretty much a stereotypical "mad scientist" who is eager to become a completely artificial robot and then exterminate all humans, leaving robots in control of Earth.

I love the science fiction story idea of mind transfer, but what is the method for mind transfer that Grimes had developed after 1000 years of research? According to Kline, the way to transfer a human mind into an artificial brain is to make use of a Hi Tek™ "telastral projector". Grimes and his fellow robots begin transferring their minds into new, artificial brains.

For "The Iron World", since we are in the post-World War I era, the robots plan to use poison gas to kill the human population of Earth.

from "The Iron World"

Struggling against the Evil Robots™ who want to exterminate the human population of Earth are Allen Jennings and the blue-eyed blonde, Ruth Randal, both of the International Secret Service. The two secret agents first meet after flying their stratoplanes deep into dangerous robot territory.

interior art

 007. Allen is agent C-14 and Ruth is secret agent E-36. They are assisted by agent Z-1, head of the Oriental Branch of the ISS. Z-1 provides Allen and Ruth with disguises that allow them to infiltrate the secret research facility of Grimes. Illustrating the dangers of including a female on a mission to infiltrate a robot base, Ruth falls off of her high heel shoe, reveling that she is a human, not a robot!

Cyborgs ᴙ Us. In full Evil Scientist mode, rather than simply kill the ISS agents, Grimes begins to subject Allen and Ruth to a form of torture that will last weeks. Concentrated acid is to be dripped onto their bodies, starting at their toes and then slowly, day by day, working all the way up to their heads.

Artificial biological brains. Just as the two-week-long torture session begins, the evil plot of Grimes begins to unravel. It is discovered that the new-fangled artificial robot brains have a defect: they grow in an uncontrolled fashion, soon consuming their nutrient solution and pressing outwards against the glass robot brain cases.

hormones out of balance

 A Great Scientist. Coming to the rescue of Allen and Ruth, Z-1 arrives at the secret base of Grimes with a human army. We also learn that Grimes made a terrible error and did not keep the "pineal hormone" properly balanced with the "pituitary hormone", causing the artificial brains to grow "like a cancer".

I suspect that "The Iron World" can be listed as one of the "murderous robot" stories that Asimov grew tired of reading in the years leading up to the creation of his own stories about robots. 

from "Vision of the Hydra"

When writing his own stories about positronic robots, Asimov imagined careful engineering that would inhibit robots from turning against humans.

The second story in the August 1937 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories by Otto Binder was called "Vision of the Hydra" and it used the same starting point as Campbell's "The Double Minds". Apparently, Binder had read Man the Unknown by Alexis Carre and been inspired to write a story about a man who learned to use all of his brain's capacity, achieving the powers of telepathy and telekinesis. 

Next

I'm of two minds with respect to the old Sci Fi stories in Thrilling Wonder Stories. It is fun to see the stories that had so much importance for the young Isaac Asimov. However, some of the stories are poorly written and very difficult to read. The ratio of science to magical fantasy in the stories is very low. 😒

Related Reading: aliens from Mercury in "Tetrahedra of Space"

Next: More hormones and robots in the August 1936 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories

The wonders of atomic energy! (August 1937) Jack Binder