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From a working author's PoV, super mental powers were great stuff. The "hard" SF audiences really liked the idea - I'm sure it helped that many of them imagine

From a working author's PoV, super mental powers were great stuff. The "hard" SF audiences really liked the idea - I'm sure it helped that many of them imagined or fantasized themselves being somewhat "super" in the mental dept. Such powers add a bunch of (conveniently arbitrary) rules, which puzzle stories could be built around. Unlike (say) FTL drives, there was no expectation that the author should devise a detailed "how it works" backstory. Nor explain how the protagonist could manage to afford or invent it. And most mental powers are an easy short-cut to the character's emotional states. (Not to assert that sophisticated and nuanced character portrayal seemed a priority of most "hard" SF authors, back in the day.)

teraflop 2y ago
An interesting counterpoint to this is the use of telepathy in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish cycle, which is generally considered as more "soft" sci-fi. Several of the early books in the series revolve around "mindspeech", which is a form of telepathy in which it's impossible to knowingly lie: > Mindspeech between two intelligences could be incoherent or insane, and could of course involve error, misbelief; but it could not be misused. Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the symbol be twisted aside, and the lie come to be. Between thought and sent-thought is no gap; they are one act. There is no room for the lie. (City of Illusions) In her later works in the same setting, Le Guin backed off from this, although she never explicitly retconned it out of existence: > I couldn’t use it in a story any more, because when I began to think seriously about the incalculable effects mutual telepathy would have on a society, I could no longer, as it were, believe in it. I’d have to fake it. https://reactormag.com/introduction-from-ursula-k-le-guin-the-hainish-novels-stories-volume-one/ https://reactormag.com/introduction-from-ursula-k-le-guin-th...
- ElFitz 2y ago
  I really enjoyed Peter F. Hamilton’s take on this in the Night Dawn Trilogy, with his Edenists. A bit hopeful, but intriguing.

teraflop 2y ago

An interesting counterpoint to this is the use of telepathy in Ursula K. Le Guin's Hainish cycle, which is generally considered as more "soft" sci-fi. Several of the early books in the series revolve around "mindspeech", which is a form of telepathy in which it's impossible to knowingly lie: > Mindspeech between two intelligences could be incoherent or insane, and could of course involve error, misbelief; but it could not be misused. Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the symbol be twisted aside, and the lie come to be. Between thought and sent-thought is no gap; they are one act. There is no room for the lie. (City of Illusions) In her later works in the same setting, Le Guin backed off from this, although she never explicitly retconned it out of existence: > I couldn’t use it in a story any more, because when I began to think seriously about the incalculable effects mutual telepathy would have on a society, I could no longer, as it were, believe in it. I’d have to fake it. https://reactormag.com/introduction-from-ursula-k-le-guin-the-hainish-novels-stories-volume-one/ https://reactormag.com/introduction-from-ursula-k-le-guin-th...

ElFitz 2y ago
I really enjoyed Peter F. Hamilton’s take on this in the Night Dawn Trilogy, with his Edenists. A bit hopeful, but intriguing.