It's True, I Tell You

I was a bit confused on first reading Poul Anderson's "I Tell You, It's True" (Conflict, New York, 1989) but it makes sense.

A US diplomat diplomatically addresses a Thai revolutionary. After the diplomat has activated a concealed device, the revolutionary heeds what is being said to him. Is some beneficial influence at work? No. Two Americans have built a machine that affects brains, making people believe whatever they are told. (A drug did this to Dominic Flandry in "Honorable Enemies" and was used to fool a telepath.)

In alternating passages, we read accounts of the machine being used and discussions about whether it should be used. Then the accounts of its use become incompatible. It is being used by the US government, then by criminals, then by a hostile foreign government. Then we realize that the accounts of its use were scenarios in the discussion about whether it should be used. Then the inventors use the device to prevent it from being used.

Finally, the Premier of the Chinese People's Republic, addressing the world through three synchronous relay satellites, with simultaneous translation into many languages, assures everyone that he is not using any electronic brainwashing...

The story implies that, when a technology has become possible, then it will be developed and used. Does it also imply that, if this is to happen, then the technology, in this case "neuroinduction" (p. 149), might as well be used by Us now rather than by Them later? I am not sure whether that second implication is present.

Short Stories II

I understand that Poul Anderson wrote three "Wing Alak of the Galactic League Patrol" stories and I have just read the two that are collected in Kinship With The Stars. It remains to be seen whether the third Alak story is in any of the other collections that I have here.

It would be good if the galaxy were full of intelligent beings at various stages of technological development because, in that case, the human race would not be solely responsible for the future of intelligence and civilization.

For an anthology of new stories on the theme of self-sacrifice for a cause, James Blish wrote "A Hero's Life," later expanded as "A Style in Treason," about a professional traitor, and Poul Anderson wrote "High Treason" about a man convicted of treason. I read the Anderson story in the 1970's and thought that it was good. It had a sort of World War II feel against an interstellar background. Since it was collected in Conflict, I will shortly reread it.

For the time being, I am checking through some of Anderson's short stories before returning to his novels.