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Futuredays: A Nineteenth Century Vision of the Year 2000 Paperback – January 1, 1986
- Print length96 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHenry Holt & Co
- Publication dateJanuary 1, 1986
- ISBN-100805001204
- ISBN-13978-0805001204
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Product details
- Publisher : Henry Holt & Co; First American Ed. edition (January 1, 1986)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 96 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0805001204
- ISBN-13 : 978-0805001204
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,256,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15,119 in Sociology (Books)
- #58,649 in Social Sciences (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Isaac Asimov (/ˈaɪzᵻk ˈæzᵻmɒv/; born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov; circa January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was prolific and wrote or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. His books have been published in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal Classification.
Asimov wrote hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series. The Galactic Empire novels are explicitly set in earlier history of the same fictional universe as the Foundation series. Later, beginning with Foundation's Edge, he linked this distant future to the Robot and Spacer stories, creating a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He wrote hundreds of short stories, including the social science fiction "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.
Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Most of his popular science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include Guide to Science, the three-volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, as well as works on astronomy, mathematics, history, William Shakespeare's writing, and chemistry.
Asimov was a long-time member and vice president of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs". He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, a crater on the planet Mars, a Brooklyn elementary school, and a literary award are named in his honor.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Phillip Leonian from New York World-Telegram & Sun [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Rather than comment on the artworks, I'd like to comment on Asimov's commentary, which suffered the advance of technology at least as much as Jean-Marc Côté's predictions did. For example, he predicted that 2000-era warfare would involve high-altitude bombers and nuclear weapons. Rather than blasts of ever greater power, however, bombs have evolved toward ever-greater precision. A smaller blast within inches of dead center and penetrated to precise depth can be even more effective, and can pinpoint an underground bunker in a population center with no effect on civilians a block away. And, although altitude has its place, stealth aircraft hugging the landscape can be even harder to detect and to counter.
Asimov's foresight fell short in other areas, too. The robot stenographer of another scene captures the essence if not appearance of text-to-speech products like Dragon. Likewise, Roomba floor cleaners lie within easy reach of many houshold budgets. Electronic music, although not robotically played on acoustic instruments, pervades popular cultures. (In a second reversal, Animusic) computer animations electronically recreate the music-making robots depicted here.) And the chemist-chefs distilling meals-in-a-pill presaged today's molecular gastronomy . It seems odd that, a hundred years ago, descriptions of today's life might be more accurate sometimes than descriptions of a quarter that age.
Still, the future isn't what it once was and probably never will be. That's no reason to stop dreaming. Sooner or later, some of those dreams might come true.
-- wiredweird