Contributed by
"William E. Emba"
"The Dangerous Dimension" is L. Ron Hubbard's first science
fiction story, written at editor F Orlin Tremaine's request
for something light, easy-reading, and humorous. In the
story, Professor Henry Mudge, by thinking about negative
dimensions, comes up with "Equation C", at which the mere
sight one gains the ability to teleport just by thinking
of the destination. Unfortunately, the teleportation happens
whether or not you actually wish to go. Mudge has great
difficulty controlling himself, but by forcing himself to
work out "Equation D" he gains control.
No real mathematical content, just classic pulp mumbojumbo.
The story could just as well have been written with "C rays"
or "element D", but Hubbard apparently thought mathematics
sounded better.
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Of course, more people know Hubbard as the founder of the religion Scientology, but he was also a science fiction writer. (Some people might say that Scientology itself was just a clever bit of science fiction, and I might be one of them. If so, then it's a shame that he didn't include a bit of mathematical fiction in that creation as well!)
"The Dangerous Dimension",
first appeared in ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION, June 1938.
Reprinted in Sam Moskowitz (ed) FUTURES TO INFINITY, 1970.
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