Jerry Eugene Pournelle (born August 7, 1933 in Shreveport, Louisiana) is an essayist, journalist and science fiction author. He holds advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science.
His science fiction, much of it written in collaboration with Larry Niven, frequently has strong military themes. Several books center around the fictional mercenary infantry force Falkenberg's Legion.
He wrote the "Chaos Manor" column in the print version of Byte magazine for many years, describing his experiences with various hardware and software configurations. He continues to write the column for the online version and international print editions of Byte, as well as the computer programming magazine Dr. Dobb's Journal (from the December 2003 issue onwards).
His political experience includes serving as Executive Assistant to the Mayor and Director of Research for the City of Los Angeles. He wrote the SDI portion of Ronald Reagan's State of the Union Address.
He is noted for having moved from the left wing of American politics to what many perceive to be a conservative stance. Thus his critics are able to describe him as "slightly to the right of Genghis Khan", and he himself takes great pleasure in announcing: "I know what 'pinkos' are like, cause I used to be one".
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