Re: OT: Asimov (was Global warming update: Coldest April in 113 years ...)


"Phillip Helbig---remove CLOTHES to reply" <helbig@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:evu3id$s25$1@xxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <1176661840.264124.14520@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "AEF"
<spamsink2001@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

Bob, I suggest you read "Asimov's New Guide to Science"

Indeed. And a couple of hundred other Asimov books as well. I would
cite Asimov's essay collections in particular, and his books in general,
as one of the greatest (in both senses of the word) influences on my
life.

Asimov's New Guide to Science was the successor to Asimov's Guide to
Science. This, in turn, was the successor to The New Intelligent Man's
Guide to Science, since calling it The New New Intelligent Man's Guide
to Science was obviously not an option. It started out as The
Intelligent Man's Guide to Science.

By the time Asimov had become famous as a science writer, the women's
lib movement was in full swing (and Asimov had been a supporter from the
start). He was once asked by a journalist whether the name The New
Intelligent Man's Guide to Science wasn't sexist, and whether it
shouldn't be called The Intelligent Person's Guide to Science. Without
missing a beat, and perhaps with a bit of faux surprise, Asimov
explained that the "Intelligent Man" referred to the author. :-) This
was probably a bit of creative rewriting of history on his part, but
calling the successor volume Asimov's Guide to Science, i.e. replacing
"The Intelligent Man" with "Asimov", was (this just occurred to me; the
book itself I read 30 years ago) perhaps an in-joke.


I still feel fortunate to have been infected, at a very early age, by Isaac Asimov's optimism in humanity and Earth. Back in 2004 I was going through a sci-fi dry spell and so decided to reacquire and re-read 12 books from "I, Robot" to "Foundation and Earth"
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#asimov-suggested-reading-order
I hadn't read "I, Robot" since high school in the 1960's and hadn't read the "Foundation Trilogy" since the late 1970s but had truly forgotten all the major details. All his early material is still relevant and doesn't seem dated (although early books speak about "robot psychologists" rather than programmers).

I only wish he had not died when he did. The world would have been a much better place if he had cranked out a few dozen more books before his time was up.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/links/cool_sci_fi.html#death-of-asimov

Neil Rieck
Kitchener/Waterloo/Cambridge,
Ontario, Canada.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/


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