the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

I was reading Norstrilia, and other Cordwainer Smith stories and it occurred to me that there are many similarities between both. The first part of Norstrilia was published only one year before Dune although Smith published stories well before that. So given the similitude of certain elements in these stories I am really curious to know if there was a common influence, maybe something common to that era's culture, like a meme?

Here is a discussion on the matter for Sci-Fi fans:
http://www.amazon.com/forum/science%20f ... SQBB38WVJG

A link from that discussion on the matter:
http://cordwainer-smith.com/blog/norstr ... -dune.html