The Ideal

The Ideal

By

2.5
(2 Reviews)
The Ideal by Stanley Grauman Weinbaum

Published:

1949

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The Ideal

By

2.5
(2 Reviews)
This etext was produced from A Martian Odyssey and Others.

Book Excerpt

mbled. "Now we go even past the heart of the matter, and return to Isaak here." He jammed a thumb toward the robot. "Here I will create Roger Bacon's mechanical head. In the skull of this clumsy creature will rest such intelligence as not even van Manderpootz--I should say, as only van Manderpootz--can conceive. It remains merely to construct my idealizator."

"Your idealizator?"

"Of course. Have I not just proven that thoughts are as real as matter, energy, time, or space? Have I not just demonstrated that one can be transformed, through the cosmon, into any other? My idealizator is the means of transforming psychons to quanta, just as, for instance, a Crookes tube or X-ray tube transforms matter to electrons. I will make your thoughts visible! And not your thoughts as they are in that numb brain of yours, but in ideal form. Do you see? The psychons of your mind are the same as those from any other mind, just as all electrons are identical, whether from gold or iron. Y

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1950's style sci-fi at its worst. Goofy names, improbable "science", and a nebulous plot. All followed by a let-down ending. I'm giving it three stars only because the author managed to surprise me - albeit in a negative manner - at the end.
A tepid Professor Van Manderpootz story. The professor's invention this time is a machine that reads thoughts and comes up with the person's ideal (whatever). Friend Dixon naturally wants to see what his ideal woman looks like.

Even masters of science fiction had clunkers.