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"We [science fiction writers] always wanted to believe in "private sector" space -- hucksters make better characters than a government does."
- Larry Niven
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| Tin Foil Hat (Tin Pulpit) | ||
| A metal device that protects the user from unwanted telepathic intrusions. |
This is apparently the genesis of the "tin foil hat" idea!
| "...we should give our experimental squad the suggestion to broadcast 'sleep for a week.' The telepathic message would be relayed to each of the thousands of minds waiting receptively for it, and would take root in them, until the whole nation became a single super-consciousness, conscious only of the one thought 'sleep' which we had thrown into it."
The reader will perhaps ask how we ourselves expected to escape from the clutches of the superconsciousness we had created. Well, we had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect, and had prepared for ourselves a sort of tin pulpit, behind which we could stand while conducting experiments. This, combined with caps of metal foil, enormously reduced the effects on ourselves. |
| Technovelgy from The Tissue-Culture King,
by Julian Huxley. Published by Amazing Stories in 1927 Additional resources -
|
In the story, the protagonists develop a remarkable facility for mass hypnosis through telepathy:
Huxley also refers to his tin foil hats as "our metal headgear, or mind-protectors".
Compare to the thought screen helmet from Gray Lensman (1942) by E.E. 'Doc' Smith and the probe screen hood from The Hood Maker ('Immunity') (1955) by Philip K. Dick.
Thanks to @SFFaudio for sending me this reference.
He saw himself, through this mental machinery, planting such ideas as he wished in the brain-cases of his people. He saw himself willing an order; and the whole population rousing itself out of trance to execute it. He dreamt dreams before which those of the proprietor of a newspaper syndicate, even those of a director of propaganda in wartime, would be pale and timid.
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Tin Foil Hat (Tin Pulpit)-related
news articles:
- Thought-Screen Helmets A Classic American Craft
| Vesuvius Challenge Accepted - Ancient Burnt Scroll Read! |
| Humans Love Helping Other Species |
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| Miss Alabama Beauty Contest Offers Different Standards |
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