Scanners live in vain

by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger

"Scanners live in vain" by Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger is a science fiction short story written in 1945. In a future where space travel causes unbearable pain and death, only Scanners—volunteers who have severed their sensory nerves—can crew starships. When a scientist discovers a way to make Scanners obsolete, their guild faces extinction and votes for murder. Scanner Martel must choose between loyalty to his brotherhood and preventing an assassination that could restore his lost humanity.