A detail noticed on isfdb

[james_davis_nicoll]

From the Larry Niven entry

Teleportation

By Mind Alone (1966)
The Alibi Machine (1973)
All the Bridges Rusting (1973)
Flash Crowd (1973)
The Last Days of the Permanent Floating Riot Club (1974)
A Kind of Murder (1974)

I've never seen By Mind Alone that I know of; does it really belong with the others? The reason I ask is I assumed the JumpShift stories were Niven playing around with ideas from his "Exercise in Speculation: The Theory and Practice of Teleportation • (1969)" and By Mind Alone predates that.

Comments

[tceisele.livejournal.com]

I'd never heard of the story before either, but there are parts of it posted online (probably illegally? Just parts from the middle, so I don't know how it starts or ends). It looks to be a teleportation-by-mental-powers story, with a group of people who have somehow learned to teleport and are in the process of experimenting to find out how it really works. It actually looks like it might have been an early stab at his train of thought that lead to the "theory and practice of teleportation" essay.

So yes, it probably is sufficently connected that it belongs with the others, even if it doesn't share the exact technology.

[(Anonymous)]

The detailed bibliography on larryniven.net has this story as a "stand-alone"

[(Anonymous)]

Published in 7 parts, with illustrations, here:

http://scrapbook.knock-twice.com/tagged/by_mind_alone

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That doesn't appear to be complete.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's purely mental teleportation with conservation of energy and momentum.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Oh, cousin to that Vernor Vinge novel where it turns out all the bright woman really needed to be happy was severe brain damage?

Or the Kevin O'Donnell books where the jumpers have access to a momentum source that can balance the differences between one planet and another, thus as a side effect turning all jumpers into potential WMDs?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

as a side effect turning all jumpers into potential WMDs

Which drives a good part of the plot, as the PTB are determined to keep control of the jumpers.