Questions tagged [isaac-asimov]

For questions about Isaac Asimov, an author of science fiction and popular science. His Robot series introduced the Three Laws of Robotics; he also wrote the Foundation series.

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What was the ‘obvious’ new answer to Asimov’s Pâté de Foie Gras made possible by scientific advance?

When Asimov originally wrote the short story Pâté de Foie Gras in 1956, he intended one solution to the problem asked at the end. (This related question considers the clues in the story leading to ...
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Are the 4th and 5th extensions to the 3 Laws of Robotics validated by Asimov?

Wikipedia cites extensions by other authors to the canonical "Three laws" as follows There are two Fourth Laws written by authors other than Asimov. The 1974 Lyuben Dilov novel Icarus's Way (a.k....
Moog's user avatar
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20 votes
7 answers
3k views

Asimov's laws in pseudocode or applying the 3 laws today [closed]

I first asked this at Writers.SE but was advised I might do better here... I am working on a science fiction novel that will involve a large quantity and variety of synthetic life forms. I have been ...
Steve the Maker's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
3k views

Asimov story about a scientist who foils an attempt at genocide through genetically engineered food

There's a story about a scientist forced to conduct research into creating genetically modified food grains that will kill off the people of poor nations who import these food grains. The scientist ...
Ganesh C Prasad's user avatar
20 votes
4 answers
3k views

Why is the Second Foundation considered an enemy?

At the end of the first part of Foundation and Empire, Barr mentions the Second Foundation as a possible future enemy, but why? Until that point it has been only namedropped in the prologue and when ...
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5 answers
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Have any movies been based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series?

Have any movies been produced based on Isaac Asimov's Foundation series? If not, why not?
Element's user avatar
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3 answers
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What was Isaac Asimov's first work?

I am wondering if Isaac Asimov's first work was published. Is it a short story or novel? Why he want to wrote scifi. Is it published in a book or in a magazine or elsewhere? When did he write it? If ...
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2 answers
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Are there robots with female characteristics in Isaac Asimov's stories?

Are there any robots with female looks, personality, or at least name?
R. Martinho Fernandes's user avatar
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2 answers
2k views

Does the Foundation from Asimov's novels have an emblem?

I'm well aware that the Galactic Empire from Isaac Asimov's has a famous emblem consisting of the "Spaceship and Sun". I was wondering if the Foundation itself1 has an equivalent emblem described or ...
Sekhemty's user avatar
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18 votes
6 answers
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Is Trantor Earth?

After reading the first Foundation book in the series, I asked myself if Trantor was Earth at one point. I don't think Asimov ever mentions Earth in the Foundation series.
That Furry Writer Guy's user avatar
18 votes
6 answers
4k views

What Asimov character ate only synthetic foods?

I recall an Asimov character whose religious dietary restrictions forbade all foods produced from living things; they could eat only synthetic foods. At some point in the story, that character faced ...
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In Asimov's robot story "Liar!", why does Dr. Calvin show no mercy for Herbie?

In the story "Liar!", when Dr. Calvin figures out why Herbie was acting the way he was, she But as she's doing this, Herbie pleads for her to stop because he had to lie in order to obey the First ...
KavSub's user avatar
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What Happened to U.S. Robots?

In Asimov's chronologically earlier stories, like the ones in "I, Robot", the corporation 'U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men' was featured prominently. Yet in his chronologically later stories there's no ...
Keshav Srinivasan's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
9k views

Meaning of "gay ladies' man"?

Second Foundation (Kindle edition, page 40): Bail Channis was one of these. He did not fear the mysterious Second Foundation. For that matter, he did not fear the Mule, and boasted of it. Some, ...
Guilherme Woolley's user avatar
17 votes
3 answers
940 views

Why did the planetarium not drive the scientists mad in Nightfall?

In Isaac Asimov’s "Nightfall", the people of another world are driven mad because they see how many stars are in the sky when all six suns are hidden. This happens every two thousand years, and ...
CigarDoug's user avatar
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2 answers
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Asimov short story about nuke going off in 1945

This story is about someone from the future ensuring the first atomic bomb is set off in 1945 so that the "future" would be one in which Earth would be the only source of intelligence in the galaxy. ...
Kevin Casey's user avatar
17 votes
5 answers
9k views

What are the major themes in Foundation?

I'm not very good at discerning themes from books, but one of the ones that I picked up from Foundation went something like this: "a culture that stops learning is doomed to fail." What major themes ...
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Why is Trantor so metropolitan with such a low population density?

The opening chapters of Asimov's Foundation characterize Trantor as being a dense, highly-populated city, to the point that it's almost exclusively indoors and extends a mile underground. But in the ...
exupero's user avatar
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17 votes
2 answers
592 views

Which episode is Gene Roddenberry referring to?

Gene Roddenberry and Isaac Asimov had some communication after Asimov wrote some disparaging comments about the scientific accuracy of Star Trek. They eventually became firm friends and Roddenberry ...
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3 answers
2k views

Do the Jovians in "Victory Unintentional" exist in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series?

In the book Foundation and Earth I think it is stated that no other alien life had been found in the galaxy that didn't originate from earth. However, in the story "Victory Unintentional", collected ...
BREAD's user avatar
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Was Stephen Byerley a robot after all?

In Asimov's short story Evidence there is a strong suggestion that Stephen Byerley is a robot. However, in the very next story in the series The Evitable Conflict he shows a lack of understanding how ...
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Does "The Gods Themselves" take place in Asimov's Foundation "shared universe"?

Many of Asimov's science fiction novels, either by original design or later retconning, take place in the same shared universe. Most prominently in that universe, we find Hari Seldon's "Foundation" - ...
TML's user avatar
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What was the "obvious solution" to the first crisis in foundation?

The Anacreonians were landing their first spaceships tomorrow, but that was all right, too. In six months, they would be giving orders no longer. In fact, as Hari Seldon had said, and as Salvor Hardin ...
Sean McMillan's user avatar
16 votes
4 answers
967 views

Asimov's three laws and non human inteligence

Is there any work by Asimov regarding how the three laws of robotics apply for non human intelligent beings? Do they apply only for humans or can they be extended to any intelligent being?
santiagozky's user avatar
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Which pornographic magazine reprinted the Asimov short story “Let’s Get Together”?

“Let’s Get Together” is a short story by Isaac Asimov published in 1957, involving Soviet robot infiltrating the United States. In the 1964 anthology book “The Rest of the Robots”, Asimov gives the ...
SciFi Readers Anonymous's user avatar
16 votes
2 answers
1k views

In Foundation and Earth, what about the story about a Settler and a Spacer woman on Solaria?

In Foundation and Earth, there is a story about a Settler man and a Spacer woman leaving Solaria together. However, there is no further explanation in the book. Is it explained in another book?
Wok's user avatar
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16 votes
0 answers
371 views

Please help me identify book chronicling life of titular character turns out to be computer printed summary of his life

Language: English. I read this some time in the late 80s / early 90s. The author must have had a Commodore 64 computer, because printouts from the mainframe computer in the story (which bears ...
whybird's user avatar
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15 votes
4 answers
8k views

How did robots overcome the three rules?

I have read Asimov's books and there are the three laws. How did robots overcome this set of rules, seeing Foundation where Demerzel is able to kill. I thought that this happened when they searched ...
dichterDichter's user avatar
15 votes
5 answers
3k views

Sci-fi story about aliens with cells based on arsenic or nitrogen, poisoned by oxygen

I'm looking for a science-fiction short story, probably written by either Isaac Asimov or Poul Anderson. (I was binging on short stories collections from these two authors around the same time, 5 to ...
Daneel's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
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How many spacers were there?

At the time of the Elijah Baley trilogy, what was the total population of the fifty spacer worlds together? Solaria has 20,000 people according to The Naked Sun, but it's probably particularly ...
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15 votes
3 answers
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Do Asimov's other works fit within the Foundation timeline?

I know that the Elijah Baley, Galactic Empire and Foundation books share a common timeline, but I don't know if Multivac, Lucky Starr, Nemesis, The Gods Themselves, Fantastic Voyage and others fit in ...
santiagozky's user avatar
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15 votes
1 answer
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Can a robot be fooled by a human posing as a robot?

There are at least two Asimov stories that I recall when a robot “harms” a human. In the bicentennial man at the very beginning the surgeon robot refuses to perform the procedure as it would harm ...
Jorge Córdoba's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
3k views

What did Asimov think of Philip K. Dick?

I'm finishing Asimov's 1981 compilation of essays, in which he offers numerous opinions on many authors, books, and TV shows. But it puzzles me that he makes no mention of Philip K. Dick, who by that ...
Carlos Arturo Serrano's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
1k views

Source of tale/story referenced in "The Last Question" by Asimov

In Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question", there is a passage which reads: "Sure you are. You're weak on logic, that's the trouble with you. You're like the guy in the story who was caught in a ...
awwsmm's user avatar
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14 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why did hyperspace kill the men in the short novel "Escape!"?

In the book "I, Robot", Isaac Asimov wrote many short stories; one of them, Escape! was about the discovery of hyperspace. Why did the men that flew in hyperspace die? How did they come back to life? ...
jumpcutking's user avatar
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14 votes
2 answers
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An Asimov story where the fact that "committee" has three double letters plays a role

This is not really an SF question, but about a short story by Isaac Asimov, so I think it fits. In one of his many "mysteries", someone asks for a rather short word with three double letters ...
Alfred's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
808 views

Was Isaac Asimov lactose intolerant?

In "Escape!", one of the "I, Robot" stories, the robotic intelligence in the first FTL spacecraft prototype undergoes certain problems relative to the First Law and reacts to them by displaying ...
Ginasius's user avatar
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1 answer
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Can a robot doubt the sayings of a human?

I am currently reading Asimov's The Robot Series. I have read The Caves of Steel and now I'm reading The Naked Sun. In these two books, Elijah orders (on a couple of different occasions) R. Daneel to ...
Shevliaskovic's user avatar
14 votes
1 answer
512 views

Looking for a coffee table book with speculative essay by Isaac Asimov about asteroid settlements dispersing slowly through the universe

In the 1970s (or possibly early 1980s), some relatives had a coffee table book about space science, which (if I recall correctly) ended with an essay by Isaac Asimov which speculated about asteroid ...
Andrew's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
749 views

Does anyone know the history of "Isaac Asimov Presents" outside the anthology series?

My question is at the bottom of the post. While reading through another question on this site, I came across Neal Barrett Jr's Through Darkest America. Boldly at the top of the book it says "...
JBH's user avatar
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14 votes
0 answers
542 views

Story of a robot suspected of murder on a small planet (possibly Asimov)

Trying to identify a story of a robot suspected of murder on a fairly small planet. The planet was initially uninhabited. The robot suspect and the man killed were part of the same visiting ...
Sint's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
1k views

A fantasy short fiction by Asimov about a murder mystery writer whose sleuth comes to life

I read that story (possibly shortish novelette rather than technically "short story") at least 40 years ago. A writer got rather successful with a series of murder mysteries with the same ...
Alfred's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
647 views

ID Story: A robotic storyteller that is sentient

I'm fairly sure this is an Asimov short story, but I can't actually find the name of it. A group of kids has a robot that tells stories. They are mean to it, and generally abuse the thing. At the end ...
MeesterTeem's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
2k views

Short story by Isaac Asimov about a mental chef

I'm looking for a short story by Isaac Asimov about someone who creates dishes not in the kitchen but by combining ingredients in his head.
Joost's user avatar
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3 answers
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Is Asimov’s “The End of Eternity” time-changing model consistent?

When I think of Asimov I imagine the greatest sci-fi writer in history: Maybe this isn’t true, but I was very impressed by some of his ideas and I expect always to find great ones when I read his ...
Annibale's user avatar
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13 votes
1 answer
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In Asimov's The Naked Sun why didn't the Solarians use artificial insemination?

In Isaac Asimov's 1957 novel The Naked Sun it is a plot point that the inhabitants of the planet Solaria are raised to be repelled by physical contact, a fairly common theme in Asimov's work. It is ...
Lostinfrance's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
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How many books did Isaac Asimov write?

All bibliographies I've seen of Isaac Asimov count anthologies as books, even ones that overlap with previous anthologies, with the result being that Asimov has a much higher book count than I think ...
ibid's user avatar
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12 votes
1 answer
657 views

Where were the occupants of the Hidden Centuries in The End of Eternity?

In the End of Eternity by Asimov, the centuries above 70,000 do not appear occupied by humanity but are instead filled with duplicated infrastructure from previous centuries. However it is later ...
DQdlM's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
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What are the clues in Pate de Foie Gras that should enable the reader to figure out how the Goose made Au-197?

Does Isaac Asimov give enough clues in Pate de Foie Gras for the reader to figure out the series of nuclear reactions that produced the gold eggs? According to the link above: In a commentary on ...
user avatar
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Asimov's Foundation Editions

I want to get into the Foundation Trilogy, and was going to purchase the Kindle editions from Amazon. But a reviewer brought to my attention that all the copies in print these days are of the "revised"...
Joseph's user avatar
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