Historical Contexts of Isaac Asimov's Writings.
By: Cole Collins and Hana G. Hamilton
It is vital to understand that Isaac Asimov’s writing was influenced by the 20th century he lived in just like every author is influenced by his or her environment. For example, it is believed that Asimov’s affinity with science fiction originated from cheap, popular sci-fi magazines that he collected in his youth. One pattern in Asimov’s works is that he published more science fiction books in 1957 than usual due to inspiration from events happening at the time. His inspiration being the Russian’s launching of the first man-made satellite into orbit called Sputnik.
One of the best examples of how Asimov’s writing and ideas reflected can be found in Asimov’s famous 1971 novel, The Gods Themselves. For example, in 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. The issue of “whether or not” a man could colonize the moon became of a matter of ”when” it would happen. In The Gods Themselves a race of people living on the moon in the year 2070 coincidentally are named “Lunarites”. One other strong connection made between Asimov’s environment and his fictional one is how he portrayed the food industry in the The Gods Themselves. In the post WWII era when Asimov was writing the food industry was in a terrible state. Not only were cooperation’s taking over and pushing farmers out of business, but also food quality was abysmal and full of chemicals. In the year 2070, when The Gods Themselves takes place, Asimov’s universe’s high tech food industry is running without a hitch producing healthy cheap food with no consequences. It possible to infer to that Asimov had the notion the food industry would perfect itself in the future and illustrated in the novel.
Another perfect example of real world happenings influencing Asimov can be seen in the late 1920s to 1940s when new technology was appearing, including the invention of a automaton/robot human and dog. The advances in robotics and science had a very negative effect for most of the public during the 20th century. The innovations made the majority people fear technology, and even reject it. This reaction was portrayed in many other science fiction novels and stories that showed robots as evil. Asimov had a different view. “The Strange Playfellow”, later called “Robbie”, was a story about a robot and its affection for a child it was bound to protect. In this story, however, the robot is protective and friendly toward humans. Asimov's optimistic attitude portrayed robots as beings to be sympathized and welcomed. In all of his stories, robots co-exist with humanity on the premise of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
To fully appreciate Asimov’s work as art we must know that his writing was a product of his time. The Gods Themselves and Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics, while fantastic examples, are not the only case in which this happens. Asimov’s background, including his upbringing and beliefs, all play a role in his stories and books.
One of the best examples of how Asimov’s writing and ideas reflected can be found in Asimov’s famous 1971 novel, The Gods Themselves. For example, in 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon. The issue of “whether or not” a man could colonize the moon became of a matter of ”when” it would happen. In The Gods Themselves a race of people living on the moon in the year 2070 coincidentally are named “Lunarites”. One other strong connection made between Asimov’s environment and his fictional one is how he portrayed the food industry in the The Gods Themselves. In the post WWII era when Asimov was writing the food industry was in a terrible state. Not only were cooperation’s taking over and pushing farmers out of business, but also food quality was abysmal and full of chemicals. In the year 2070, when The Gods Themselves takes place, Asimov’s universe’s high tech food industry is running without a hitch producing healthy cheap food with no consequences. It possible to infer to that Asimov had the notion the food industry would perfect itself in the future and illustrated in the novel.
Another perfect example of real world happenings influencing Asimov can be seen in the late 1920s to 1940s when new technology was appearing, including the invention of a automaton/robot human and dog. The advances in robotics and science had a very negative effect for most of the public during the 20th century. The innovations made the majority people fear technology, and even reject it. This reaction was portrayed in many other science fiction novels and stories that showed robots as evil. Asimov had a different view. “The Strange Playfellow”, later called “Robbie”, was a story about a robot and its affection for a child it was bound to protect. In this story, however, the robot is protective and friendly toward humans. Asimov's optimistic attitude portrayed robots as beings to be sympathized and welcomed. In all of his stories, robots co-exist with humanity on the premise of Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:
- A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
To fully appreciate Asimov’s work as art we must know that his writing was a product of his time. The Gods Themselves and Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics, while fantastic examples, are not the only case in which this happens. Asimov’s background, including his upbringing and beliefs, all play a role in his stories and books.
Entropy in the Context of "The Last Question"
By Tyler Nelson
Entropy is a measure of order, or more specifically: the availability of energy in a system that can be used to do work. A system with high entropy is highly disorderly, and a system with no external source of energy will never lose entropy. This is because isolated systems will always evolve toward an equilibrium state in which everything has the same amount of energy. If an ice cube is dropped into a glass of room temperature water, the water will melt the ice cube, giving heat to the cube, thereby losing its own heat. Eventually the water in the glass will all be the same temperature. This same principle works at the scale of the entire universe. From what we can gather, the universe is an isolated system. It receives no energy from outside its boundaries. Eventually, trillions of years after every star has died, black holes will begin to decay. This is expected to happen in around 10^100 years, an utterly incomprehensible amount of time, so it’s nothing we need to worry about. However, it is still profoundly disturbing that eventually there will be only subatomic particles left in the universe; no galaxies or stars or even atoms, and we know of no way to reverse this process, as the only way we can produce energy is using energy or matter that is part of this system. When the idea of entropy was first being discussed, people were troubled because many of them believed in the continuity of nature, or that life and the universe would go on forever. Asimov plays off this futility in his short story “The Last Question.”