Editing E. E. Smith (section)

==Influence on science and the military==

Smith was widely read by scientists and engineers from the 1930s into the 1970s. Literary precursors of ideas which arguably entered the military-scientific complex include [[Strategic Defense Initiative|SDI]] (''Triplanetary''), [[Stealth technology|stealth]] (''Gray Lensman''), the [[OODA loop]], [[Command and control|C3]]-based warfare, and the [[Airborne early warning and control|AWACS]] (''Gray Lensman'').

An inarguable influence was described in a June 11, 1947, letter<ref>Letter from John W. Campbell to E. E. Smith, pages 1–2, Dated June 11, 1947.</ref> to Smith from John W. Campbell (the editor of ''Astounding'', where much of the ''Lensman'' series was originally published). In it, Campbell relayed Captain [[Cal Laning]]'s<ref>Presumably, this is later Rear Admiral Caleb Lanning, shipmate, friend, and occasional co-author of Heinlein.</ref> acknowledgment that he had used Smith's ideas for displaying the battlespace situation (called the "tank" in the stories) in the design of the [[United States Navy]]'s ships' [[Combat information center|Combat Information Centers]]. "The entire set-up was taken specifically, directly, and consciously from the ''Directrix''. In your story, you reached the situation the Navy was in—more communication channels than integration techniques to handle it. You proposed such an integrating technique and proved how advantageous it could be. You, sir, were 100% right. As the Japanese Navy—not the hypothetical Boskonian fleet—learned at an appalling cost."

One underlying theme of the later ''Lensman'' novels was the difficulty in maintaining military secrecy—as advanced capabilities are revealed, the opposing side can often duplicate them. This point was also discussed extensively by John Campbell in his letter to Smith.<ref>Letter from John W. Campbell to E. E. Smith, page 2-3, Dated June 11, 1947.</ref> Also in the later ''Lensman'' novels, and particular after the "Battle of Klovia" broke the Boskonian's power base at the end of ''Second Stage Lensmen'', the Boskonian forces and particularly Kandron of Onlo reverted to terroristic tactics to attempt to demoralize Civilization, thus providing an early literary glimpse into this modern problem of both law enforcement and military response. The use of "Vee-two" gas by the pirates attacking the ''Hyperion'' in ''Triplanetary'' (in both magazine and book appearances) also suggests anticipation of the terrorist uses of poison gases. However, Smith lived through WWI, when the use of poison gas on troops was well known to the populace; extending the assumption that pirates might use it if they could obtain it was no great extension of the present-day knowledge.

The beginning of the story ''Skylark of Space'' describes in relative detail the protagonist's research into separation of platinum group residues, subsequent experiments involving electrolysis, and the discovery of a process evocative of [[cold fusion]] (over 50 years before [[Stanley Pons]] and [[Martin Fleischmann]]). He describes a nuclear process yielding large amounts of energy and producing only negligible radioactive waste—which then goes on to form the basis of the adventures in the Skylark books. Smith's general description of the process of discovery is highly evocative of Röntgen's descriptions of his discovery of the [[X-ray]].

Another theme of the ''Skylark'' novels involves precursors of modern information technology. The humanoid aliens encountered in the first novel have developed a primitive technology called the "mechanical educator", which allows direct conversion of brain waves into intelligible thought for transmission to others or for electrical storage. By the third novel in the series, ''Skylark of Valeron'', this technology has grown into an "Electronic Brain" which is capable of computation on all "bands" of energy—electromagnetism, gravity, and "tachyonic" energy and radiation bands included. This is itself derived from a discussion of reductionist atomic theory in the second novel, ''Skylark Three'', which brings to mind modern quark and sub-quark theories of elementary particle physics.