That page is a good reference, thanks. That was the world I was living in when I decided to get involved in CofS. I had read most of the golden age of sci fi when young, including all of the books and stories that popularized GS and the possibilities that it might improve the world, which I saw as an extension of Plato’s concept of the “Philosopher Kings” from The Republic.

I was surprised that Hubbard never again mentioned the disparity between the speed of speech and the ability of some people to process information, since it is clear that both he and Heinlein had had their own experiences and insights in that area. “Speedtalk” is an original idea in the area of information science as far as I am aware.

Yes. Reading “Gulf” is what prompted me as a fan at age 12 to go to the library and check out “Science and Sanity”, just as it reportedly inspired Hubbard’s interest in GS.

That Heinlein story – the one that described ‘speedtalk’ – started life as a series called “Gulf’, originally published in “Astounding” and appeared in book form as “Assignment in Eternity”.

interestingly this was the apparant origin of a term used by Hubbard for Scientologists ‘Homo Novis – a concept that Heinlein seems to have second thoughts about, judging from his later novel, “Friday” which used some of the same characters as “Gulf”.
https://scicrit.wordpress.com/?s=friday

Thanks for pointing this out.

One of my obnoxious cousins…..SQUAWK! I learned how to behave around Hubbs. If I tried to squawk back, he’d throw empty rum bottles. Partly why…chirp…..after I was sent away, I converted to Judaism.

Thx for the link. Good stuff. 😊

Good points! Makes a lot of sense when described as such!

That was good stuff – thanks for sharing. Wow – it’s incredible to me that the reaction to that book always seemed to be that it is either absolute crap or genius that will rock the world, but no Luke-warm or moderate responses. Even when first introduced.

Doc M kindly reposted this letter for us. At the top of his post he wrote: “Please note that I did not write it but found it on a news web site.” I too hope it gets seen enough to cause Palin to regulate her behavior, but I ain’t holdin’ my breath.

Nope, and MadMaxi beat you to it: the holy hand grenade of Antioch!