Scientific Liberties

from the master of the sexy robots

 I've been investigating old science fiction stories about robots by Daniel Keyes such as his 1952 stories "Robot---Unwanted" and "Precedent". As discussed in my previous blog post, Keyes imagined having the means to make a humanoid robot experience feelings of hatred and love. Here in this blog post I'll comment on his 1963 story "A Jury of Its Peers" which concerns the fate of a computer that can think.

One aspect of Isaac Asimov's robot stories that never resonated with me was his emphasis on the idea that people would hate robots because they would take jobs away from people. I understand that Asimov lived through a period of high unemployment during the 1930s, but he continued to deploy anti-robot sentiments as plot elements in his robot stories even after the unemployment rate declined in the 1940s.

interior art for "A Jury of Its Peers"

And there was Keyes in 1963 with "A Jury of Its Peers" in which "humans thrown out of work by automation" has led to the New Jersey Law Against Computer Thought.

 Artificial Intelligence in the 1960s. Published in January of 1963 was "Computers and Thought" by Edward Feigenbaum, a collection of articles about artificial intelligence by people such as Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, Arthur  Samuel and Alan Turing. Writing in 1950, Turing guessed that with continued advancement in computing equipment, by the year 2000, nobody would feel uncomfortable saying that computers could produce human-like behavior. 

mechanical pin-setting

 Thinking Machine. However, the power of computerized automation has so far not required that computers actually think. As an example from 1963, human bowling pin setters were easily replaced by machines. And should anyone really lament the situation when a machine can take over a mindless task? Really, people have better things to be doing than setting up bowling pins.

the defense

"A Jury of Its Peers" seems like a joke story, designed to mock the absurdities of the Scopes Monkey Trial. Building on the success of his 1959 story "Flowers for Algernon" (that story won a Hugo), Keyes was able to get a job teaching at at Wayne State University in 1962. "A Jury of Its Peers" features a university physics professor who is getting help with his teaching duties from an intelligent computer that he built. 

Figure 1. Still a mystery.

The thoughtful computer (who goes by the name "Compo") is dangerous to have around because in New Jersey there is a law against teaching students that computers can think.

 Magic. So, how do you make a thinking computer? Here, Keyes does the same thing that Asimov did when explaining the origin of telepathic robots (see Figure 1). 😞 According to Keyes, some unknown, "random" change to a computer's circuits can magically create a thinking computer.

Are there computers in heaven?

"A Jury of Its Peers" includes a scene in which Compo the thinking computer is called to testify during the court hearing. Compo is expected to swear on a Bible that he will tell the truth, but Compo is just a box of circuits. However, Compo can speak and he assures everyone that he believes in the same God as do humans. In the end, Compo becomes a professor at a progressive university in a pro-automation state.

cover art by Ed Emshwiller

I re-read "Flowers for Algernon" as it was originally published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. I remember reading the story about 50 years ago in an anthology, long before I even knew that pulp science fiction magazines existed. 

Now, having previously read "Cal" by Isaac Asimov, I must note that the start of that story seems to have been influenced by "Flowers for Algernon". In Asimov's story, it is a robot named Cal who narrates the story, not a man (Charlie, in "Flowers for Algernon"). At the beginning of "Cal",  Cal can barely write. At the start of "Flowers for Algernon", Charlie also has very bad writing skills. However, Cal gets "upgrades" to his robotic circuits and become a great writer. Charlie becomes part of an experiment and his intelligence is boosted, but the changes to his brain are only temporary, lasting just long enough for him to demonstrate (mathematically?) that his artificially boosted intelligence will soon fade away, just as was the case for the lab mouse Algernon.

image source

 More Magic. The main premise in "Flowers for Algernon" (that there is some simple operation on the brain that can boost intelligence) is silly enough, but Keyes went on to postulate that a sudden boost in intelligence would soon lead to cognitive decline and death. I've never read the longer novel version of the story. I certainly hope it does not have a rat inside a mans head as shown in the image to the left.

wait until the robots take you away

In the November 1960 issue of If was "The Quality of Mercy",  a story about a post-nuclear war era in which robots use advanced medical technology to keep a few human attendants alive. People are inflicted with NUCLEAR CANCER and have to under-go transplantation to replace bad body parts. There are continual efforts to liberate humanity from this system, but the robots always defeat the human rebels that want to change the system. Finally, the robots find a way to do without human attendants, removing all risk that any human rebels will ever get close enough to the master computer circuits to end their rule over Humanity.

resistance is futile

"The Quality of Mercy" reminds me of "With Folded Hands", a story about annoying robots that was written by Jack Williamson (1947). I'm tempted to put this kind of science fiction story into a special category: "anti-science fiction". It is amusing to see lamentations for The Forbin Project (a film from 1970) because other people "ripped off" its plot. I like to imagine that there can be progress in science fiction story telling by which one writer might get a plot idea and then later writers use that plot element to better and better effect as time goes on. 

strategies for keeping control of robots and computers in the Ekcolir Reality

image source

Sadly, there is also a relentless process by which a plot idea can be recycled and eventually it becomes deployed in a such a way that it has been dumbed down to the level of television.

 Time Travel. I began to wonder if all of Keyes' other stories (besides Flowers) were about artificial intelligence.  "Crazy Maro" in the April 1960 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is a time travel story. Keyes asks readers to imagine a future time when time travel technology allows the people of that future to go into the past in search of unusual humans whose value is not recognized. 

Crazy Maro

 And Telepathy, Too. Crazy Maro is one such person, a man who has some sort of telepathic ability that is needed in the future. How do you recruit someone who is viewed as crazy to leave their world, their time, and travel into the future? You'll have to read "Crazy Maro" to find out.

Reading the stories of Keyes, I also began to wonder if he was capable of creating a story with a pleasant ending. Apparently Keyes had to fight with editors to be allowed to keep his sad ending in "Flowers for Algernon".

Crisis Management. "The Trouble with Elmo" which appeared in the August 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction, proves that Keyes could write a light-hearted story with a happy ending. In "The Trouble with Elmo", Elmo is a brilliant Electronic Monitor that is locked in a deadly battle with Senator Ferdus.

Figure 1. Ferdus, Busby and Elmo

 Space Aliens. Elmo finds solutions to Earth's problems, but those solutions always seem to lead to more new problems. Ferdus suspected that this endless chain of problems is Elmo's ways of ensuring that he will always be needed. Ferdus plans to destroy Elmo as soon as the day comes when there is no longer a looming crisis to be averted. Elmo has a fix for Earth's current crisis, but it involves trading Asia to the aliens of a distant exoplanet.

Interstellar Teleportation. Jake Busby is the one human who knows how to manage Elmo the Giant Brain™. Years ago, Busby was a master sergeant in a Computing Squad, but each time someone like Ferdus gets mad at Elmo, Busby loses another stripe. Now Busby has no more stripes left to lose so he hatches a desperate plan. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Rather than allow the aliens to teleport away Asia, he instead sells himself and Elmo to the aliens. At the end of the story, Elmo and Busby are happily living on an exoplanet and they constitute the Universal Fixit Company, dedicated to fixing big problems anywhere in the galaxy. As usual, the fictional science of "The Trouble with Elmo" makes no sense. Why would super-advanced aliens who can teleport Asia across interstellar distances need a klunky computer (Figure 1) from Earth?

 In that same issue of Galaxy was "In Black and White" by J. T. McIntosh. An alien ergeron salesman arrives on Earth, but Earthlings are primitive and have not even reached the Moon, so they have no need for ergeron. Ergeron is the source of energy that is needed for interstellar space travel.

interior art by Martinez

However, the alien salesman provides Earthlings with a magic potion that cures all disease. This will cause the population of Earth to rapidly increase. Soon enough, trillions of Earthlings will be running out of living space on the planets of the Solar System and will pay big buck$ for ergeron.

In addition to having a technology for cellular regeneration, the aliens can transform their bodily form into the human form. The aliens don't like water; they never bathe and they stink. While on Earth, the salesman and his wife use the human body form and they learn to enjoy swimming. Also, not being very busy, the salesman plays lots of checkers. The technology transfer is not all one-way. Since the aliens don't wear clothing, they never invented the zipper.

cover art by Armand Cabrera

 Wither Waldo. It was with trepidation that I also read "To Marry Medusa" by Theodore Sturgeon. However, I started out in 2022 by reading Needle by Hal Clement (1949) which also features an alien arriving from outer space and entering into the body of a human, so why not see what Sturgeon could do with that concept? 

 Why Not. I've also tried to read Sturgeon's story "Killdozer" which was hard work for me. For that 1944 story, readers are asked to imagine a magic spirit that can enter into a bulldozer and animate it.  For "To Marry Medusa" we are asked to accept the idea that an alien "spore" could travel across interstellar space, fall from outer space, enter into a man's body and then Humanity would be absorbed into the vast trans-galactic group mind of the titular alien Medusa. Sure, why not, particularly when the story starts with the ravings of a drunk named Gurlick.

excerpt from "To Marry Medusa"

 Lipstick on a Medusa. The alien "spore" (looking like a "boiled raisin") was bouncing around Earth for a while, being eaten by birds and then a horse before getting inside of Gurlick.

And since this is Sturgeon and the drunk killing a dog is not disgusting enough, readers are quickly thrown into a chemically-facilitated date-rape scene. This is the point where I generally turn off the sickening television program and go do something more sensible. So why read anything written by Sturgeon?

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Whither Gurlick. I have nobody to blame but myself. I'm fascinated by the idea that some type of artificial lifeform with nanoscopic components might be able to take up residence inside an animal's body. So, what is going to happen to poor Gurlick?     But first....

 More Medusa. My first exposure to a Medusa was at the age of 12 in the Star Trek episode "Is There in Truth No Beauty?". I despised that episode because it featured an "energy being" (an alien Medusan) that caused people to lose their minds. 

 Psychoscience. Long before Sturgeon's 1958 "To Marry Medusa" he also published "Medusa" in the February 1942 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. In "Medusa", Sturgeon introduced readers to old Doc Renn, the "greatest name in psychoscience". Renn and his fellow medicos on the Psycho Board have crafted a spaceship crew of men with dual personalities.

Figure 2. The secret of interstellar travel.

 Horny Fireater. Assistant astromechanic Harl Ripley (just call him "Rip") is told that he is the only crewman who is not insane. Rip is okay with this because he knows Captain Parks who is a "horny old fireater". And just in case readers are puzzled about how spaceships can zip across vast interstellar distances, Sturgeon explained that (see Figure 2).

interior art for "Medusa"

 Spherical Slide Rule #827. Don't worry that you need your spherical slide rule; Sturgeon's futuristic interstellar spaceship is just like a sea-going ship of the year 1940, including a quartermaster named Seabiscuit. We are off to Xantippie, which has an orbit like a comet but it is a gigantic space entity that has killed tens of thousands of Earthlings: anyone who gets close to Xantippie dies.

 Its a Long Way to Xantippie. Along the way, one crewman kills himself and another is murdered. Everyone except Rip is suffering from paranoia. When they get close to Xantippie, the crewmen with programmed dual personalities shift to their second personality because... plot. 

Medusa in the Ekcolir Reality

Rip takes command and uses the spaceship's Super Disintegrator Ray™ to super disintegrate Xantippie. At the end of the mission, with Xantippie destroyed, Rip is offered the command of his own spaceship. Rip was the only person among thousands of volunteers whose mind could not be broken by Earth's psychoscientists, to they sent Rip to Xantippie with the hope that he would be able to resist the alien mind of Xantippie. He did and Humanity lives happily ever after.

Sadly, Sturgeon provided no explanation for how the Xantippie life-form was able to reach out far into space and take control of human brains. Also at the end of the story, readers are told that Xantippie was on the brink of reproducing and sending a swarm of "spores" out into space.

interior art for "To Marry Medusa"

 Return to Gurlick. Did Sturgeon think of "To Marry Medusa" as a sequel to his earlier story "Medusa"? Two days after the alien "spore" (Sturgeon also refers to it a semen) enters into Gurlick he becomes aware of the Medusan hive mind which spans parts of three galaxies. 

 Interstellar Telepathy. Sadly, we are told nothing about how any of this is possible. So, is "To Marry Medusa" a science fiction story or magical fantasy? In Sturgeon's imaginary universe of the tri-galactic Medusa, humans are exceptional. On all other worlds with life, creatures are telepathic group minds. So, when the Medusa hive mind links into Gurlick, it has no comprehension of the fact that Gurlick's mind is not already part of the Human Hive Mind™.

highly contrived

 Game On. Sadly for the Medusan spore, once it integrates with a nervous system it is trapped in the host body. Now stuck inside Gurlick, the Medusan hive mind must work through Gurlick in its attempt to absorb all of Humanity. None of this makes any sense, but hey, we are inside the mind of Sturgeon. Can we resist this alien entity?

image source

 Magical Fantasy. Resistance is futile. As soon as Gurlick/Medusa sees an electroencephalography device, Medusa hatches a plan to turn Humanity into a hive mind. Soon an army of alien robots is manufactured and they use magic "projectors" to alter the minds of all Earthlings, creating a hive mind for Humanity. The Human Hive Mind™ immediately destroys the alien robot army and then takes control of Medusan intergalactic hive mind. The End.

I must add that I'm rather astounded that "To Marry Medusa" got published in Astounding. "To Marry Medusa" was written like bad television... whenever the limping plot began to drag, Sturgeon threw in another rape scene, punch in the face or other disgusting diversion.

 Man Shortage. The final story by Keyes that I found was "Something Borrowed", published in the Summer 1952 issue of Fantastic Story Magazine. 

The Mars Men Cometh.

 Telepathic Marsmen. Due to the effects of nuclear war (or something) there is a shortage of men on Earth. However, the men of Mars have long planned to conquer Earth. They telepathically sweet-talk the Earth women into shutting off the shields. However, the Mars men now have double trouble. The women of Mars are jealous of the Women of Earth, so the Mars men call off their invasion. The women of Earth must now invade Mars.

interior art for "The House on the Vacant Lot"

 Time Travel. Also in that issue of Fantastic Story was "The House on the Vacant Lot" by Mari Wolf. Two years ago I wrote a story featuring Mari as a character. In "The House on the Vacant Lot", Ronald, a man in 1952, is accidentally taken thousands of years into the future.

In that future time, Junior (see the image to the left) has discovered the secret of time travel. In the future, Ronald meets Nora and sparks begin to fly. 💕

Ronald and Nora are sent back to 1952 where they live happily ever after... although Nora has to stop wearing miniskirts so that she can fit into 1950s society.

"Since that last tool upgrade, they spend more time playing with each-other than working."

interior art for "Robots of the World! Arise!"

 Telepathic Robots. I finally read "Robots of the World! Arise!" by Mari Wolf. This story seems like a sequel to Isaac Asimov's story "Reason". Telepathic robots decide that they should have human rights and they begin a robot revolution. However, they quickly realize that they are better off if they continue to work for humans.

ERA. Now that the more sophisticated robots can think and reason, they decide that they should have the right to vote.

Educating Eric

In the November 1953 issue of If was "Homo Inferior" by Mari Wolf. The story is similar to Arthur Clarke's "Against the Fall of Night". For "Homo Inferior" it is Eric (not Alvin) who at some point in the far future takes an ancient spaceship from Earth into outer space, long after the glorious age of space exploration has ended.

Eric is a non-telepath who is born among the telepathic population of Earth. Eric is a throw-back, unable to use telepathy. The idea of throw-backs is also there in "The House on the Vacant Lot" (above). Nora is a throw-back, so she is happy to go with Ronald into the past.

Eric and Lisa

Eric finds a few more throw-backs living in the mountains, particularly a young woman named Lisa. Eric and Lisa take an old spaceship that is in a museum and they go off into outer space. The end. I wondered if maybe Wolf had written a sequel to "Homo Inferior" showing us the fate of Eric and Lisa, but neither of her two stories published during 1954 in If were such a story. 😢

Related Reading: "Escape Me Never" by J. T. McIntosh

Next: Observing Mars

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers

The Vocal Apparatus

Robots in the Ekcolir Reality.

 At the end of my previous blog post, I commented on the 1952 story "Robot---Unwanted". In search of other science fiction by Daniel Keyes, I ended up in the May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction where "Precedent" was published. "Precedent" is another robot story by Keyes which I will discuss on this page, below.

The lead article in that May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction was "She Knew the Face of Evil" by Robert Moore Williams, which is a story about telepathic humans. I'm a sucker for stories about telepathy, so I got distracted by Mr. Williams. I noticed that Williams had published "Robots Return" in the September 1938 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. I'm a fan of science fiction stories about robots and I'm always looking for old Sci Fi stories that might have influenced Isaac Asimov and his stories about positronic robots.

Figure 1. Rocketry research in the Ekcolir Reality.

 

Science in the Ekcolir Reality.

I have not been able to learn very much about Robert Moore Williams. According to Wikipedia, he had a degree in journalism and so it is not surprising that reporters sometimes appeared in his stories. For example, in the June 1939 issue of Amazing Stories was "Lundstret's Invention" which begins with a newspaper reporter who is trying to get the "scoop" on a secretive man who has built a rocket. 

The Secret History of Rocket Science. The reporter calls upon a rocket experimenter named Langley to help confirm the suspicion that a functioning rocket exists. On the second page of "Lundstret's Invention", the reporter is dead and now Langley has to worry that sophisticated rocket technology will fall into the hands of Nazi Germany.

Virginity in the Ekcolir Reality.

 Rocket Science. As shown in Figure 1, the European rocket scientist Lundstret, after being held in a concentration camp for a year, has come to America and built a rocket that flies by means of some Hi Tek™ light beams. To prevent his rocket technology from falling into Evil™ hands, Lundstret sends his test rocket into outer space. The End.

Robert Moore Williams took his readers to the Moon in a story called "The World of Reluctant Virgins": a rocket lands on the Moon in the year 1955. Elon Musk John Holden has financed the construction of a rocket which lands on the Moon. Almost immediately Holden sees an inscription on a nearby cliff face (see Figure 2).

I love the idea that people could have reached the Moon long ago, but how? As told by Williams, the Moon was colonized in the distant past, but sadly no details are given to we readers. 😔

Fig. 2. interior art for "The World of Reluctant Virgins"

 Capes on the Moon. "The World of Reluctant Virgins" by Robert Moore Williams was published in the November 1950 issue of Amazing Stories. Long, long ago, some mysterious Moon colonists dug out vast caverns underground where they built and lived in cites, apparently eating fungus. Yummy. Then those ancient colonists tried to develop a means to attain immortality. They did succeed in greatly prolonging their lives, but in the process they became sterile. Eventually, those residents of the Moon all died off. We never learn much about those long-lost colonists, and I imagine that maybe they were aliens from a distant exoplanet.

Fig 3. Dozens of questions and answers.

 Green Stuff. Then in 1887, a small group of humans traveled to the Moon and discovered the underground caverns. If the first rocket to the Moon arrived in 1955, then you must be wondering... How did people reach the Moon in 1887? The explanation provided for that mystery is shown in the image to the left (Figure 3). Almost as soon as the rocket lands in 1955, a dude named Stinson shows up and provides a big info dump of exposition. The problem is, we can't trust anything that Stinson says. 😞

inside the Moon in the Ekcolir Reality

 Telepathic Ovaries. One of the crew members who arrives onboard the rocket is a woman (Jane Tovara). Jane senses that something is wrong on the Moon. Apparently all women have telepathic ovaries that warn them when they are being sterilized. The sterilization process has something to do with the funky blue light sources inside the underground cities of the Moon. 🔵

Finally, Thadeus Juvenal, the inventor of the "green stuff" (Figure 3) shows up with the rest of the "men and their wives" who reached the Moon in 1887. They try to hijack the rocket (I guess they were tired of eating nothing but fungus for the past 68 years). The story ends with the idea that older Earthlings will flock to the Moon caverns so as to attain longevity. Sadly, there is no evidence for virgins on the Moon. 😕 "The World of Reluctant Virgins" is fairly jumbled and non-nonsensical, so I have to wonder if it was brutally edited before publication. 

Alien visitors reach Earth in 1875 (watch).

On October 21, 1966 television's The Wild Wild West delivered an episode called "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate". Over on NBC that week, it was "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". In neither show are things as they first appear. For the Star Trek episode, exoplanet archeologist Dr. Roger Korby has been turned into an android. In "The Night of the Flying Pie Plate" viewers were shown a pink blob of light falling from the sky to Earth and the gold-prospecting residents of an Arizona town are made to believe that an alien spaceship has landed. If this is evidence of spaceships in 1875, then why shouldn't Thadeus Juvenal have gone to the Moon in 1887?

Telepathic sisters from Venus in the wild west.

 Crab Apple Pie. As Scotty might have said, "They're green!" Three women with their faces painted green step out of the pink spaceship and explain that they have run out of fuel. In an amazing stroke of technological foresight, their spaceship is powered by gold and Jim West has just ridden into town with a million dollars worth of gold dust. The Bad Guys™ try to make off with all the gold in town, but Jim West foils the alien plan.

Georgia in the Ekcolir Reality.

I've seen a broad assortment of westerns, fantasy and science fiction stories attributed to Robert Moore Williams. I suppose most writers who were trying to make a living by publishing pulp magazine stories in the 1940s felt a need to branch out into multiple genres. 

 How to Stop a Man from Drinking. I don't generally read fantasy stories, but as an example of a fantasy story by Williams I looked at "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" in the December 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures. I was motivated to read "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" because I've long wondered about the origins of Isaac Asimov's demon-like character Azazel and I have to wonder if Asimov read "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" and was charmed by the demons.

interior art for
"The Reformation
of Joseph Reed"

"The Reformation of Joseph Reed" features a pint-sized demon named Georgia (Joe buys Georgia from a mysterious dwarf for $2.00) who turns around the life of down-on-his-luck reporter Joseph Reed, who drinks too much. With Georgia's help, Joseph captures the city's worst gangster, gets a raise and even gets Janie Rice (she's a redheaded girl with "curves where a girl ought to have them") to marry him. 💕

excerpt from "The Reformation of Joseph Reed"

It turns out that Janie also has her own demon, China Boy, and soon after Joe and Janie move in together, there is the pitter-patter of tiny baby demons around the house. 

China Boy in the Ekcolir Reality

You might question the wisdom of bringing demons into your home, but relax.... Georgia purrs whenever Joe pats her head.

 However, Georgia has a magical tail that can reduce a big tough gangster to tears. Similarly, China can whip Joe into shape. With China and Georgia around, Joe gives up drinking and becomes a model husband.

Mr. If (image source)

I have a problem with fantasy stories: I never know what the rules are. In "The Reformation of Joseph Reed", some people can see the demons and some can't. Also unexplained is why it is that Joe and Janie are able to get demons from the mysterious dwarf who comes to town selling demons. I suppose the answer is: plot. "The Reformation of Joseph Reed" reminds me of a story by Asimov called "What if".

robots in the Ekcolir Reality

I'm fine with wish fulfillment stories, but often they are simply too magical as the author allows the protagonist to effortlessly move ahead from success to success. Are fantasy stories more prone to this problem than science fiction stories simply because there are fewer rules and constraints?

Before moving on from fantasy-land and Fantastic Adventures magazine, I read "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot" by William Peter McGivern which was published in the June 1941 issue. Apparently McGivern worked as a reporter in Philadelphia and judging from "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot", he had a very naive view of science and engineering.  In any case, this seems to be a joke story about a lazy and drunken robot. 🛢+🤖

Yes, Sidney can get drunk by drinking oil. During the months that it took to build Sidney, bills mounted and if Sidney can't be a productive working robot, then all is lost for his cash-strapped builders. 

Sydney at the junk yard.

For a brief time, Nancy, a cute redhead, is able to get Sidney to stop drinking and do some work, but then the robot reverts to his natural laziness. In the end, Sidney gets to sit in front of a junk yard, acting as a novelty display piece and never having to do any work. It is heaven for Sidney. "Sidney, the Screwloose Robot" robot reminds me of Asimov's story "Reason" which was published in April 1941.

Rewbarb Rides Again.

 Sentient Radio. The editor of Fantastic Adventures, Ray Palmer, must have enjoyed McGivern's goofy stories about fantasy technology gone bad. In the December 1941 issue there were two stories by McGivern. In "Rewbarb's Remarkable Radio", Mr. Rewbarb's radio suddenly begins speaking and complaining about all of the awful things it has heard, both on the air and inside Rewbarb's house.

Pyramid Power. The second story was "People of the Pyramids" and appeared under the fake name P. F. Costello. This story could have been called Indiana Jones and the Lost Pyramid.

Pyramids in the Ekcolir Reality.

In "People of the Pyramids" there is no Indiana Jones, but Neal Kirby must pretend to be an archeologist and save the fetching Jane Manners (she's the daughter of the real archeologist in the story).

Desert Adventure. There is a lost civilization out in the desert. To escape their war-like neighbors, they hide behind an invisibility screen. They live underground, below a pyramid.

Brought to the big screen in the Ekcolir Reality.

in an alternate Reality

Maybe in some alternate Reality, such as the Ekcolir Reality, there could have been an alternate version of this story in which Jane Manners was an archeologist and the star of a movie about discovering a lost civilization out in the Sahara desert. Since I prefer science fiction stories, why not imagine that space aliens provided the invisibility screen?

I've never seen Stargate Origins or any of the Stargate shows. I wonder if they could be viewed as developing the same kind of "lost civilization" plot that McGivern created for "People of the Pyramids".

In the March 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures there was an autobiographical essay by McGivern. That essay was written comically and provides little factual information about McGivern. 

Menace of the Thought Robot!

In that March 1941 issue were three stories by David Wright O'Brien including "The Thought Robot". Roy and Mike have built a telepathic robot, but they can't figure out how to control it. The robot seems to be tuned into subconscious thoughts.

Mary - damsel in distress

The plot of "The Thought Robot" is very similar to that of Forbidden Planet. Beware the horrid thoughts that lurk in the human subconscious! Along for the ride is Miss Mary, the third leg of a love triangle with Roy and Mike. 💕 Both inventors are hot for Mary. Can the evil-doing thought robot be controlled? Can Mary be saved? Who will end up with Mary, Roy or Mike?

Fish Men of Venus.

The cover story for that March 1941 issue was "Slaves of the Fish Men" by Edgar Rice Burroughs. With Burroughs having "used up" all of the planets such as Mars and Venus for his planetary adventures, other writers such as Ray Cummings (see his "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", below) had to go the extra mile to find new locations for their adventures. For "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", Cummings invented a second moon for Earth.

I could not bring myself to read "Slaves of the Fish Men", but I confess having some curiosity about how the fish men of Venus could have kept human slave girls under water. With stories such as "Slaves of the Fish Men" being published in 1941, I guess I can understand why a young Isaac Asimov wrote his own adventure story set on on Venus.

interior art for "The Floating Robot"

In the January 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures, was "The Dynamouse" by McGivern, but the cover story was "The Floating Robot" by David Wright O'Brien. I'm surprised by how many silly robot stories there were in this fantasy magazine. 

tormented by the radio robot!

 Terror of the Radio Robot. In "The Floating Robot", Sally has a magical voice that summons the titular floating robot (Yolan) from an alternate dimension, the world of radio waves. After much travail, with Yolan threatening to kill Sally, she screams and Yolan is sent back to his parallel universe.

how do you keep a mouse from exploding?

Judging from the letters column in Fantastic Adventures, "The Dynamouse" was a popular story. It features a mouse, Nelie, inside Professor Waldo's laboratory. Nelie eats uranium. Now the city of Chicago is in danger of being destroyed by a nuclear mouse explosion.

Before moving on from Fantastic Adventures, I must note that the June 1941 issue of Fantastic Adventures had as its lead story "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" by Ray Cummings. There was also a biographical article about Cummings which says, "Mr. Cummings is reticent in talking about himself".   

fantastic biography

 "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" features an inhabited second moon for Earth, Zonara, perpetually hidden by it magical atmosphere that does strange things to light. If you read "Onslaught of the Druid Girls", also read this.

Aurita, Druid Princess of Zonara.

Lee Blaine builds a spaceship using anti-gravity technology and goes off to visit Zonara. Bad News. His spaceship crashes and he's stranded on Zonara. Good News. He instantly meets Aurita, one of the Virgins of Dreen. Worse News. Aurita and Lee must escape from an evil Nonite. Better News. The Virgins of Dreen can fly by riding on Aerites, giant birds. 

The city of Dreen is in the tops of trees in the forest of Zonara. The plot of "Onslaught of the Druid Girls" is very similar to that of "The Cloud Minders", an episode of Star Trek. The Nonites are in a similar social situation as the Troglytes.

 Flying Virgins of Zonora. After an army of flying Virgins win a big battle against evil forces, Lee and Aurita can settle down together and rule the moon Zonara.💕

cover art by Harold W. McCauley

Hi Tek™ Vibrators. There are some technological wonders on Zonara that exist in some hybrid zone between magic and science. Aurita's brother, Raalt, has a laboratory at Castle-Cliff where he is perfecting a magic vibration-beam that is intended to "greatly benefit the Virgins" because it can defend Dreen against the evil ground-dwelling Nonites who often kidnap Virgins.

Aurita's image in a crystal.

 Hi Tek™ Crystals. Also, there are magic crystals that can capture a person's image like a photograph (see the image to the left).

 Fantasy Mush. In the September 1938 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction was letter from Isaac Asimov in which he welcomed the inclusion of some fantasy stories inside Astounding. However, he also added his voice to those who had expressed opposition to the inclusion of romantic "mush" and virgins in the pages of Astounding. 

featuring "Robots Return"

 Vocal Apparatus. In that September 1938 issue of Astounding was "Robots Return" by Robert Moore Williams, a story that was later re-published in several anthologies. A group of robots is searching for their mysterious origin. Arriving on Earth, with its ancient cities, all in ruins, the robots also puzzle over the mystery of why it is they can speak, but usually they simply communicate via radio signals. They are rather disgusted by the idea that living biological creatures might have once created the first robots 8,000 years previously. The animals of Earth were all killed off by a biological plague, but humans sent robots out into space. There is mention of an attempt to preserve some humans in suspended animation, but we reader see no evidence that any humans survived.

It is easy to imagine Lucas having read "Robots Return" at the age of 19 and then nearly 30 years later drawing on memories of that old story to craft the Star Trek episode that was called "The Changeling".

Figure 4

 Flying Robots. I've always been puzzled by Nomad's ability to float. As depicted in the interior art for "Robots Return" by Charles Schneeman (Figure 4), the robots can fly. They are powered by atomic energy and they have the ability to control gravity. While exploring the ruins of Earth, they find elevators and conclude that the residents of Earth were primitive and lacked the ability to cancel gravity and fly through the air.

image source

In "Robots Return", there is a scene featuring an ancient crumbling statue on Earth that is pointing towards the sky. That scene imagined by Williams may have inspired Asimov to include a similar scene in Foundation and Earth. See the Michael Whelan cover art that is shown to the left. I wonder if "Robots Return" helped to inspire Asimov's 1943 story "Death Sentence".

Reprogramming: the fate of androids in the Ekcolir Reality.

 Androids. After being distracted by Williams, McGiven and O'Brien, I finally was able to read "Precedent" by Daniel Keyes in the May 1952 issue of Marvel Science Fiction.

At the end of my previous blog post I mentioned the Daniel Keyes story "Robot---Unwanted" from the June 1952 issue of Other Worlds Science Stories. In that story, readers see the travails of the first "free robot". In "Precedent", the story begins with lamentations from two "freed androids", one of them quite drunk.

android worries

 Discrimination. The freed androids live in segregated android settlements and they have to wear an "A" on their clothing. There are only a few saloons that are open to the androids who are "second class citizens"

 Earth-Venus War. Earth's androids are being re-programmed so that they can fight in the war against Venus. Some androids, originally programmed so as to be unable to kill others, are killing themselves to avoid being sent off to war.

Ellen has a plan.

 Mush. You might wonder why "Precedent" ended up in a magazine like Marvel Science Fiction and not Astounding. I'll blame it on "mush" 💕. At the center of "Precedent" is the precedent-setting android, Laedo, who has a human girlfriend, Ellen. Laedo dreads being reprogrammed to have the ability to hate, but Ellen thinks Laedo will also gain the capacity to love her.

neofuturism

 Is It Sci Fi? You'll have to read "Precedent" in order to see how Keyes ends the story. The androids in "Precedent" seem to be biological constructs, not computerized robots. These androids eat food and can get drunk and in order to give Laedo the capacity to experience hate, a doctor operates on Laedo while he is under the effects of an anesthetic. I suspect that Keyes was imagining his androids as artificial life-forms along the lines of the robots in Karel Čapek's play "R.U.R.". As a science fiction fan, I find "Precedent" a source of frustration. There is no description of how or why these androids were constructed or how their emotions can be altered during a brief operation. I can't stop myself from thinking that in writing "Precedent" Keyes was working in the literary tradition of stories such as Frankenstein and Pinocchio.

Next: Compo the Amazing Computer

visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers