“Cybernetics is the big new idea of the times, and it is my opinion Hubbard...has got cybernetics, and got it bad; this is to say, he has got it wrong” — Yvette Gittleson, American Scientist, 1950 Wiener strikes again. The 40s/50s apparently just contained like 10 people
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Imagine how you’d form a group then 1. Postcards to letter writers you “follow” 2. Exchange of letters 3. Bunch of postcards to invite people to regional meetup 4. Asimov might show up 5. Escalate to phone for locals you meet more often on short notice/impromptu
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Phone was also limited because a) landlines b) answering machines weren’t yet big (first commercial failure = 1949, first successful ones ~1960) Local postcards would have been easier, and as quick if high chance phone wouldn’t be answered it you had to leave a message anyway
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This all feels alien to me though I did grow up in landline/postcard/letter era. We did pen-pal crap in the 80s (my sister had one, I never bothered). Long-distance was letter-writing. “Trunk” calls were too expensive except for emergencies. Local phone was also sparingly used.
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In general I did very little non-locally except join a kids club sponsored by our regional newspaper which sent me a dumbass badge, membership card, and some stickers. I had one letter published in a comic book I subscribed to (more stickers as reward). Circa 1982-86 I think.
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Okay now we’re at dawn of Scientology, 1950 or so. Hubbard has convinced Campbell his stuff is real. They’re experimenting with hypnosis, regression to past lives, scopolamine, barbiturates. Terminology like engrams, clear, preclear, auditing is coming together. Dianetics time!
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Hubbard picked up his shtick via disciple of Alesteir Crowley, english occultist. This is outside scope of the book, but clearly occult and SoCal new age religion scene was the other parent of Scientology if sci-fi was the first parent.
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Heh, early Scientology is reminding me of current blogosphere interest in trauma. Question is who’s the Hubbard of this crowd? A charismatic older blogger with vaguely occult leanings and a line in technobabble-infused talk therapy and a self-improvement/perfection protocol?
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Oh shit, I know exactly where to map this. Won’t say it out aloud to avoid beef provocation.
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Okay maybe a snippet or two. This bit made me actually lolpic.twitter.com/aM9w0jLW3r
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The book’s understanding of Wiener and cybernetics is weak. Planting a Gell-Mann amnesia flag for this bit. Like most outsiders he credits Wiener with way too much. He was at best a sort of P. T. Barnum of control theory with a few contributions.
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Fixing break in threading https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1234303017299542023?s=21 …https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1234303017299542023 …
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End of conversation
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