Though I say it who shouldn't, I made a good choice of quotes in that immediately preceding
post. It is all about how the immediate past and the immediate future form a continuous process. First, Poul Anderson highlighted the mere sixty-six years between Kitty Hawk and the first Moon landing. Secondly, Heinlein contrasted the generation that grew up with air flight and the generation that grew up with rocket travel. Heinlein's first Moon landing was in 1978, nine years after ours. Thirdly, Asimov covered the same kind of theme but this time with the progress in robotics in Susan Calvin's lifetime from the late twentieth to the mid-twenty-first century. Sf reflects real processes but in imaginary forms in parallel timelines.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
My father was born in 1903 and died in 1985, so his lifetime covered much the same trajectory from Kitty Hawk to the Apollo Moon Landings. And I hope we see men returning to the Moon and going to Mars!
But we still don't have Asimovian robots, as we see them in I, ROBOT.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
No but the way Susan Calvin spoke of the progress in robotics in her lifetime exactly paralleled the way Anderson described the progress from Kitty Hawk to the Moon landing. I, ROBOT fantastically expresses the same kind of rapid technological progress.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, I can see that. And we do have robots nowadays, just not the kind Asimov wrote about. Our robots seem to be mostly used in factories for pre-programmed, repetitive tasks.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
And our robots do not have positronic brains. They are not conscious.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly. Not CONSCIOUS entities.
Ad astra! Sean
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