Tom Lehrer - Wernher von Braun

1913 German edition (980 pages), [link] may be out of copyright in Germany. If so, it could be machine translated into English and improved by humans. Unabridged German editions are rare and expensive, e.g. [link] . 1971 abridged English translation quoted a leader of German and later American rocket and space programs, [link] Wernher von Braun: "I shall never forget how I devoured this novel with curiosity and excitement as a young man." From the dust jacket of the English translation: Lasswitz's Martians differ little from man physically, but ethically, intellectually, scientifically, and socially they are the prototype of the ideal human being. They seek to educate man, asking in return only air and energy to supplement the diminished supplies in their own, older world. The story revolves around a group of German scientists who, when seeking the North Pole, come upon a Martian settlement there. The Martians have built an artificial island, adapted to their physical needs, above which-6356 kilometers above-hovers their space station, a giant ring such as twentieth-century astronautical scientists have seriously speculated upon. ... More important than the fantastic technological developments in the story is the author's belief in the humanizing potential of science and technology and his vision of a utopian world based on the ideals and ideas which the Martians seek to transmit to the men of Earth. Kurd Lasswitz wrote his novel when scientific and industrial developments we

V2 was of questionable legitimate military utility too. Sure you can hit a target the size of a city, but unlike carpet bombing, the payload isn't enough to guarantee that something specific is destroyed. So you can only use it to randomly harm civilians and maybe every once in a while hit a military target. Compare this with the Western Allies' approach where they also killed and maimed tons of civilians but at least stood some chance of also destroying the building-sized thing they were aiming at, given the stupefying tonnage of bombs involved. "Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down? 'That's not my department,' says Werner Von Braun." -- Tom Lehrer [this video]

For a different professor, there's Dr. Bob Altemeyer, who wrote a book in 2006 (after 40 years of research) that includes a section on evidence-based deradicalisation[0] of authoritarian followers, pp240-245: [link] (for objections, see [1]) That's nonfiction, and anachronistic. As far as fiction in the correct setting goes, I'm drawing a blank, and I even had to read things like "At the Bridge" and "The Tin Drum" in school (as well as watch dokus like "The White Rose" and "Triumph of the Will"[2]). Most stories I know are of the unrepentant[3]; maybe I can dig some repentant ones up later? [0] dereactionalisation? [1] some discussion at [link] [2] if I am overly paranoid, maybe it's because it's difficult to see anyone's GOAT propaganda these days and not compare it with Riefenstahl; she made the [link] ? [3] including, but not limited to: Oberleutnant (as he was then) "Kongo" Müller [link] [link] Generalmajor Reinhard Gehlen [link] [link] SS-Sturmbannführer Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun [link] [link] ("doctor were-ner von brawn") (see also [link] , and elsewhere on HN, for wholesale vs retail sellers) lagniappe: [this video] You too may be a big hero Once you've learned to count backwards to zero "In German, und Englisch, I know how to count down Und 我学习中文!" says Wernher von Braun EDIT: (haven't been using Gemini, sorry) Schwarzenegger's neighbours retreated into the bottle[4]: [link] [4] [link]