Thanks loads, Carlos

[james_davis_nicoll]

Collected John W. Campbell, Jr. editorials

Comments

[tandw.livejournal.com]

In his defense, better scientists than he had come to the same conclusion regarding proteins. The ones who were still alive, though, had changed their minds by then.

His argument diatribe against Dr. Frances Kelsey, the FDA official who blocked the sale of thalidomide in this country (particularly the not-so-veiled hints about "women's intuition" and aspersions on her education) was also not helped by a quick perusal of Wikipedia's article about her. She had a doctorate in pharmacology, an MD, and twenty years' teaching & research experience before she was hired by the FDA in 1960. (And she's still alive, over forty years after JWC's death. Good for her.)

So all of that in the first half of the very first of the hand-picked editorials. I don't think I'll be digging any further.

Edited to add Dr. Kelsey's name, which I had unaccountably left out.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

The overwhelming evidence against proteins by late 1962, however, including the early synthetic messenger RNA experiments to elucidate the genetic code (not to mention the 1962 Nobel to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins), makes me wonder if Campbell was deliberately adopting a crank view.

Or maybe he was profoundly ignorant. With Campbell, it's hard to tell.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

She got her first important job because someone mistook "Frances" for "Francis" and thought she was a man (okay, they MIGHT have hired her anyway, but...).

[tandw.livejournal.com]

It sounded like that was her future thesis advisor's error, and I suppose it's possible he might have hired her; she already had bachelor's and master's degrees in pharmacology.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

Ah, in "Hydrogen Isn't Cultural," Campbell starts talking about the genetic code. December 1963. Ends with, "And I'll bet the genetic codons aren't terrestrial, either."

So it was Campbellian ignorance.

SLANS THIS IS YOUR MENTAL LEADER BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

"And I'll bet the genetic codons aren't terrestrial"

Panspermia?

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Reminds me of something in one of the afterwords in William Tenn's "immodest proposals" collection, in which Tenn/Klass, a chess club member and a habitue of the Washington Square Park chess corner, beats Campbell "very much a sometime player", and Campbell is "I just can't believe you're that much better than I", is unimpressed by Tenn's efforts to minimize the blow, and walks off "shaking his head and exhaling in misery."

This was a fellow who clearly couldn't stand the idea he wasn't the smartest guy in the room, and therefore untouchable by mere facts once he had formed an opinion on something or decided he understood something.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know if it is as common now that computers can beat all of us, but for the longest time there was a tendency to regard chess as some sort of IQ test, utterly ignoring the element of knowledge and determination required to play well. As a great swimmer would appear to be a worse athlete than a mediocre baseball player, if the only test was skill at baseball.

While most good chess players I know are in fact fairly to very intelligent, I have an acquaintence, not easily distinguishable from an intelligent goat, who can probably beat all present and future Nobel winners handily(1) (and I beat pretty much all the time, though I'm quite sure I'm not getting shortlisted for the Nobel any time soon). But then he really wanted to be a decent player, and, all credit to him, studied hard, played a lot, and hung around with good players - you can learn a lot from their causal conversation.

I actually met someone a few years ago who still held to this view of chess and intelligence. As a quite strong player himself he found it a congenial attitude. It was like meeting an extinct creature, say a Dodo, but not as charming.

(1) He might have been in trouble if they gave Nobels for music. Prokofiev and David Oistrach would have beaten him, not to mention Grandmaster and pianist Mark Taimanov.

William Hyde