TWO LETTERS FROM CHRIS HARDING

9/12/1991

Dear Rick Rosner:

Thank you for Noesis No. 61 which I've read.

I recall having come across a book called Man-Child by David Jonas & Doris Klein published by the Scientific Book Club in 1972 and originally published in 1970 by Davidor Ltd. in of all places a flea market sale and paying 40 cents for it since they thought no one would ever have wanted to read it which turned out to be one of the best reads I ever had! which says something similar to your piece. That was in 1973 I believe. If I recall correctly their position was that man is the product of regressive evolution as an overcompensation for physical weaknesses caused in an early ape-like ancestor by virus disease. The thought may have occurred to them for that was the period of rampant 'flue viruses like the world had not seen for half a century.

In the 1950's Alfred Bester wrote two science fiction works that were to become classics of the genre--the second originally called Tiger Tiger and later published as The Stars My Destination which had the interesting quote part of which ran: "but the classics and romantics were blind to the cold facts of evolution, that progress stems from the clashing merger of antagonistic extremes born out of the marriage of pinnacle freaks." Yet his freaks were the regressive products of Man-Child curiously enough which suggests that many iiiincis have contrived (as you have) a similarity of convergence.

I look forward to a merger of the Noetic and Mega Societies which may be in harmony with the above reflections.

Sincerely,

Chris. Harding

[Address omitted]


10/14/91 

Dear Rick Rosner:

The alleged proposal set forth on the front of Noesis Number 64 shows some animals to be more equal than others.

All those who have passed a Hoeflin test shall be given sanctuary no matter how any renorming may shift their scores. On the other hand all others must risk themselves. These people were Mega Society members--they did not ask to become Noetic Society members. By some process of legerdemain the Noetic Society appears to have taken a legal name reputation position right etc. for its own use without regard to the dignity status or rights of members of the Mega Society. How very odd.

If such a proposal were put to share holds in any company it would be rejected out of hand. The matter would further be referred to the Security and Exchange Commission. I've seen some rorts in my time but this one takes the cake.

Now you see it, now you don't! Certain people were Mega members now they are going to be subscribers. The shifty who set this one up knows full well that old Mega members will wind up on their asses--any retesting leads to a heap of burnt out regression to the mean products.

Let's try it the other way around. All those who have passed Hoeflin test may try a standard IQ test available from any reputable psychologist. If they can't pass such a test they may remain subscribers. Let's call it the Noetic Society. This could be fun after all. Standard tests are after all proven tests, aren't they. We stand to gain certainty here, don't we.

Actually that situation is likely to remain preferable. Guide lines are in the process of being drawn up by the International Test Commission which will be binding on national psychological societies and written into the laws of member states. I can't put a time frame on it, but some time in the near future tests produced by amateurs aren't going to be legal tender, which is going to mean unless your PhD is in Psychometrics you'll be required to make a nasty court appearance.

Stranger still is the thought that the Noetic Society wanted new blood but now proceeds in an orgy of bloodletting.

I get the distinct impression there are some false motives being flung around and it looks like a lot of scat to me. Pardon me for saying so but I think it's the attraction of the name. Odder still since it occurs to me that Mega this and Mega that these days would have reduced the word to a bumbling banality that could be done without. Every dummy has heard the word and knows what it means by now. It takes a little more to know Noesis etc. I would have thought a high IQ society was in the business of giving signals to the people it was seeking rather than swamp the selection agency. Megarian too always was an unfortunate name wasn't it.

Sincerely,

Chevalier Baron Dr. Christopher Philip Harding, SFPE. DPhE. F.I.B.A. A.A.A.B.I. MCC. PhD. Kt. MSS. SRFP. M.P. (Member of the International Test Commission since 1996) (I am to put it mildly of illustrious descent. My biography appears in the 2nd edition of The First Five Hundred--the most prestigious Biographical Who's Who ever published--only 500 people throughout the world have ever been listed of the 250,000 who have appeared in various national and international Who's Who references over the last 60 years of a world population of 5,300,000,000.)