In the late 40s and 1950s, scifi editor John W. Campbell believed that scifi had an obligation to pu
In the late 40s and 1950s, scifi editor John W. Campbell believed that scifi had an obligation to push front and center less accepted scientific beliefs, like that of psychic power (which Campbell called “psionic,” the first to use and popularize that term), the Dean Drive, the Hieronymus Machine, and Dianetics, a psychology alternative created by Campbell’s friend and frequent contributor, L. Ron Hubbard. Though Campbell popularizing Dianetics in Astounding led to the creation of the Church of Scientology decades later and created a colossal fandom battle fought in the fanzines, the Dean Drive, seen above, is another bit of quackery that Campbell used his pulp mag to spread the word about.In short, the Dean Drive is an engine that creates forward thrust without pushing back, violating the law of motion that “every action has an equal but opposite reaction.” For that reason, the Dean Drive is also called a “reactionless thruster,” and it’s easy to imagine how useful something like that could be in space, where there’s nothing to “push off” from. In 1962, Campbell even witnessed a test of the Dean Drive in operation. Many scifi fans were extremely anti-Dean Drive, notably Jerry Pournelle, a young fan and aerospace engineer, who endlessly wrote fanzine articles about how the Dean Drive couldn’t have worked. -- source link
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