tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196163935457463870.post3889185235797963694..comments2023-10-09T14:44:54.023-05:00Comments on Mission: Spork: Ole Doc Methuselah - Part Five - EnlightenmentNathan Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09504332787476259342noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196163935457463870.post-25887540835739557982016-04-17T00:26:05.777-05:002016-04-17T00:26:05.777-05:00If this book predates Dianetics, I doubt it's ...If this book predates Dianetics, I doubt it's going to take a stand against psychology in general. Maybe the later stories do, after Hubbard became embittered against the entire medical profession and their professional societies (AMA, APA, etc.) for not finding any value in his made-up case studies and quasi-psychotherapy / hypnosis / personality cult and not taking Dianetics seriously like he expected them to.<br /><br />Hubbard had the exact same chip on his shoulder against academia for shunning him as a psychologist as Ayn Rand did after she wasn't taken seriously as a philosopher, like she fully expected everyone in academia to do after she published Atlas Shrugged and started her small personality cult of Objectivism.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11940703605954596797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196163935457463870.post-24309690415637534552016-04-17T00:19:24.087-05:002016-04-17T00:19:24.087-05:00It's a horrifying premise, but reminds me of s...It's a horrifying premise, but reminds me of something that Frank Herbert got right with Dune and few other authors bothered to deal with, including Hubbard's Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth: any sufficiently advanced technology to include A.I. and dramatic life extension isn't also going to be feudalistic and slave-holding.<br /><br />In Dune, a war between the humans and the A.I. led to the outlawing of A.I. as a dangerous WMD, so they have all sorts of other sci-fi gadgets, but no robots. Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth have societies with the ability to build intelligent robots and drones, then inexplicably fail to use it in the most obvious ways.<br /><br />Hoarding life-extension technology and preventing the masses from getting access to it is really an asshole move, so good job to young Hubbard for coming up with that one. It's as if all the snake oil stories and conspiracy theories about suppressed cures for aging and diseases were actually true, and he's one of the handful of elitist jerks hoarding all the disease cures so that the general public, including all other doctors, don't get too powerful. Our heroes.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11940703605954596797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-196163935457463870.post-87858555336718821982016-02-26T05:01:39.088-06:002016-02-26T05:01:39.088-06:00Wow, I never thought how bad the very premise of t...Wow, I never thought how bad the very premise of these stories was. So basically these Soldiers of Light are a medical dictatorship? Francois Tremblayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04760072622693359795noreply@blogger.com