Isaac Asimov

[Stuart]

Just thought I'd put in a good word for one of the Godfathers of Science Fiction.

 

Asimov introduced some innovative futuristic scenarios and "things" such as human-like robots, robots turning on their masters.

 

He also concentrated on characters as opposed to the world outside in his stories. Less time building background that the personae within it.

I grew up reading his books - great stories.

[Debbie]

Isaac Asimov is the writer that got me interested in science fiction. I agree, his characterisation is what makes his books. I love science fiction but I hate long tedious 'shoot 'em up' battle scenes and often skim them!

 

I love the future history style and it is an ambition to sort out all his books into chronological order of events and read them in that order (how sad am I?)

 

Debbie

[Stuart]

not sad at all

 

I, robot has been made into a film now with Wil Smith, but did anyone see the Bicentennial man with Robin Williams? Another one of Asimovs.

[CrustyGeek]

I love the Foundation series - such an expansive series of books with twists and turns throughout.

 

Asimov was one of the greates Science Fiction writers in my opinion - he always made it seem so believable.

[southernlady]

Not only that, but his Laws of Robotics became the standard for literature afterwards: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

 

The Three Laws are an organizing principle and unifying theme for Asimov's fiction, appearing in the Foundation Series and the other stories linked to it. Other authors working in Asimov's fictional universe have adopted them, and references (often parodic) appear throughout science fiction and in other genres. Technologists in the field of artificial intelligence, working to create real machines with some of the properties of Asimov's robots, have speculated upon the role the Three Laws play in such research.

 

Asimov's Laws of Robotics http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/SOS/Asimov.html

 

This article examines Asimov's stories not as literature but as a gedankenexperiment - an exercise in thinking through the ramifications of a design. Asimov's intent was to devise a set of rules that would provide reliable control over semi-autonomous machines. My goal is to determine whether such an achievement is likely or even possible in the real world. In the process, I focus on practical, legal, and ethical matters that may have short- or medium-term implications for practicing information technologists.

 

http://www.robotics.utexas.edu/rrg/learn_more/history/

The word 'robotics' was first used in Runaround, a short story published in 1942, by Isaac Asimov (born Jan. 2, 1920, died Apr. 6, 1992). I, Robot, a collection of several of these stories, was published in 1950.

 

One of the first robots Asimov wrote about was a robotherapist. A modern counterpart to Asimov's fictional character is Eliza. Eliza was born in 1966 by a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Joseph Weizenbaum who wrote Eliza -- a computer program for the study of natural language communication between man and machine.

 

She was initially programmed with 240 lines of code to simulate a psychotherapist by answering questions with questions.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

 

"What I will be remembered for are the Foundation Trilogy and the Three Laws of Robotics. What I want to be remembered for is no one book, or no dozen books. Any single thing I have written can be paralleled or even surpassed by something someone else has done. However, my total corpus for quantity, quality and variety can be duplicated by no one else. That is what I want to be remembered for", September 20, 1973, Yours, Isaac Asimov, page 329.

 

Liz

[Michelle]

Child of Time was my introduction to Isaac Asimov, which I enjoyed. I've now picked up The Caves of Steel from the library, to find out more.