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Raymond Fisher Jones (November 15, 1915, Salt Lake City, Utah - January 24, 1994, Sandy, Salt Lake County, Utah) was an American science fiction author. He is best known for his 1952 novel, This Island Earth, which was adapted into the 1955 film This Island Earth and for the short story "The Children's Room", which was adapted for television as Episode Two of the ABC network show Tales of Tomorrow, first aired on February 29, 1952.
Jones' career was at its peak during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. His stories were published mainly in magazines such as Thrilling Wonder Stories, Astounding Stories, and Galaxy. His short story Noise Level is known as one of his best works. His short story "The Alien Machine", first published in the June, 1949 Thrilling Wonder Stories, was later expanded into the novel This Island Earth, along with two other short stories, "The Shroud of Secrecy", and "The Greater Conflict", known as The Peace Engineers Trilogy, featuring the character Cal Meacham. Jones also wrote the story upon which the episode "The Children's Room" was based for the television program Tales of Tomorrow in 1952.
2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge - Your favorite prompt from a past POPSUGAR reading challenge (2018 PSC - A book set on a different planet): Short book about the role of science in society. In the future, earth has a chance to gain the knowledge of a race that is significantly advanced in technology and science. However, one scientist is skeptical and wonders what the catch is and convinces the government to send a delegation to the alien planet. The philosophical argument centers around being given all the answers and taking a narrow and direct path vs exploring all the options and making mistakes and getting there slower. Entertaining and thought-provoking story about the role of teachers and pupils and how all people should be scientists on some level in discovering their place in the universe.
This is in many ways a book about cultural diversity. It's hard to believe that an entire culture could be as limited as the rykes and still have so much wealth. I wonder that they want anything from surrounding cultures.
Some mildly interesting points but nothing really jelled for me. It's built around the simple idea that sometimes you should "look a gift horse in the mouth". It followed the typical 50's trope of humanity having some special talent that made them equal to or better than the aliens we encountered. This follows the general trope started by John W. Campbell who refused to publish any stories in which aliens were shown as equal or superior to humans. I was then surprised to find out that this story was published in "If" magazine in 1954 and not in Campbell's Astounding magazine.
The author takes a pretty dry subject - the politics of convincing others to see your point of view - and creates a fairly interesting story out of it. Pretty well written as sci-fi goes.