John W. Campbell: Difference between revisions

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* [[Can't Argue with Elves]]: Campbell hated this trope and gave an [[Executive Veto]] to any story in which aliens were shown to be superior to humans.
** Isaac Asimov responded by writing stories that don't have aliens at all, such as the Foundation series, so that questions of whether the aliens are superior did not arise.
* [[Deus Est Machina]]: "The Machine"
* [[Framing Device]]:
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* [[No Waterproofing in the Future]]: In "Out of Night", the [[Vichy Earth|occupying]] Sarn give their outnumbered [[Les Collaborateurs|human supporters]] personal force fields and energy weapons to use against the [[La Résistance|rebels]]. The force field emitters explode, killing the bearer, if the field's splashed with water. Justified, as the Sarn's hidden agenda is to {{spoiler|cull strong-willed humans on ''both'' sides of the conflict; they intentionally hand out sub par equipment so their supporters don't have a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]}}.
* [[Organic Technology]]: ''The Double Minds'' is set on Ganymede, where electricity was never discovered. Light bulbs are powered by fluorescent bacteria and cars have muscles instead of motors. Unlike most examples of Organic Technology, the story clearly states that Ganymedian gadgets are a poor substitute for electric-powered technology. A bit of an [[Unbuilt Trope]], considered that it was written in 1937.
* [[Psychic Powers]]: Campbell believed that psychic powers were real and encouraged authors in his magazine to use them in stories; he may be singlehandedly responsible for the prevalence of psychic powers in science fiction today.
* [[Science Hero]]: Arcot, Morey and Wade.
* [[Suicide Attack]]: The backstory to "Frictional Losses" mentioned the Japanese super-charging airplane engines, packing the planes full of explosives, and crashing them into enemy ships. The enemy in Campbell's story were ''extraterrestrials'', and once the Japanese gave us the idea, the rest of Earth's nations started using kamikazes against the aliens, too, which is why they didn't wipe out humanity entirely. He wrote this story in ''1936''.
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