Alfred Korzybski

(July 3, 1879 – March 1, 1950)

Alfred Korzybski, a Polish-born American semanticist, invented “general semantics.” His theories heavily influenced Heinlein, van Vogt and other sf writers and fans, who brought such concepts as timebinding and Null-Ā into fandom.

General semantics, a philosophical theory of meaning developed by Korzybski and popularized in the ’40s by van Vogt (before he got into Dianetics), initially made a great impact on fandom, but as it was terribly oversold, it disappeared just as quickly, joining technocracy and Esperanto as a faddish enthusiasm of fandom’s youth.

Encyclopedia Britannica entry.

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Person

1879—1950

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