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"The writing is clicking away in my head and piling up, and unless I get it on paper somehow it's going to create uncomfortable pressure in my skull."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Diabological Armory | ||
| A set of verbal tools based on a higher form of reasoning. |
In this classic story by Eric Frank Russell, Wayne Hillder is a space scout; he travels to distance star systems in search of intelligent life. He lands, alone, on planets teeming with space-faring lifeforms. Is he scared? No, because he knows that once a lifeform is intelligent enough to develop space travel, it is a lifeform that can be reached by the right sort of reasoning.
| What might be awaiting him at ground level did not bother him at all. The Terrans of today ... had become space-sophisticated. They had learned to lounge around with a carefree smile and let the other life forms do the worrying. It lent an air of authority and always worked. Nothing is no more intimidating than an idiotic grin worn by a manifest non-idiot. Quite a useful weapon in the diabological armory was the knowing smirk. |
| Technovelgy from Diabologic,
by Eric Frank Russell. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1955 Additional resources -
|
If you are looking for more information on specific diabological tools, consider deflatory gesture twenty-two.
Four hundred pairs of eyes examined the stranger, some curiously, some doubtfully, some challengingly, many with unconcealed antagonism.
Sitting down, Hillder looked them over much as one looks into one of the more odorous cages at the zoo. That is to say, with faint distaste. Gently he rubbed the side of his nose with a forefinger and sniffed. Deflatory gesture twenty-two, suitable for use in the presence of massed authority. It brought its carefully calculated reward. Half a dozen of the most bellicose characters glared at him.
Those who wish to reject diabological reasoning in favor of heavy-duty mathematical logic should take a look at Mathematical Logic around the world.
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'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
'We had discovered that metal was relatively impervious to the telepathic effect.'
'Detailed plans for the construction of the Gundstetter-Halone warp drive were flowing.'
'Do not waste your priceless company on the unappreciative folds of a sleep pod...'
'...so we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'Hocus-pocus religions and archaic weapons are no substitute for a good blaster at your side.'
