The human trait involved in the passing on of accumulated knowledge to new generations, which in turn makes it unnecessary for each new generation to "reinvent" the wheel and allows that generation to use the wheel as a stepping stone to invent something else. The concept comes from Alfred Korzybski and General Semantics; Robert A. Heinlein, in his GoH speech at the Denvention, the third Worldcon, claimed fans did this particularly well. This listing of fan terms is an exercise in timebinding.
| From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959
|
| (Korzybski) The distinguishing characteristic of Homo sapiens, says K. It's the ability to establish continuity beyond the individual life span by the use of permanent communications and multiple record. Historical articles and things like this dictionary are examples of the practice as it applies to fandom.
|
| This is a miscellaneous page
|
