Heinlein's "Waldo"

When I was younger my favorite author was Robert A. Heinlein,  He wrote science fiction books and won numerous Hugo awards (SciFi book oscars).  He wrote fun adventure stories until he got old and then (in my opinion) went off the deep end with his last few books.

Waldo was about a person who invented things because he had a degenerative disease which forced him to live in space.

The earth at that time used a radiated energy form to "fuel' their transportation system, but the failsafe planes, etc, were crashing.

They found out that the problem was that people stopped believing that the planes would fly and this caused them to crash.

The premise was that a strong individual or group of people believed that something would work caused it to work, e.g., if people thought that objects fall due to gravity they did.

So it was Sir Isaac Newton's belief that objects fall that caused that to happen.

Wouldn't it be fun to change the premises somewhat; just think of the possibilities!  People could fly!  We could move heavy objects with just our minds!

Robert Heinlein quotes:


"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."


"Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat."


"No matter where or what, there are makers, takers, and fakers."


"A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore!'


"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea."


"To get anywhere, or even live a long time, a man has to guess, and guess right, over and over again, without enough data for a logical answer."


"Never insult anyone by accident."


"Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do."


"Elephants aren't human but they are very nice people."


"A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill."


"The difference between science and the fuzzy subjects is that science requires reasoning while those other subjects merely require scholarship."


"I never learned from a man who agreed with me."


"Taxes are not levied for the benefit of the taxed."


"Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy."