|
Robot Visions
''Robot Visions'' (1990) is a collection of science fiction short stories and factual essays by Isaac Asimov. Many of the stories are reprinted from other Asimov collections, particularly ''I, Robot'' and ''The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories''. It also includes the title story, "Robot Visions" (written specifically for this collectionAsimov, Isaac: ''Robot Visions'', p. 17. Roc, 1990.), which combines Asimov's motifs of robots and of time travel. It is the companion book to ''Robot Dreams'' (1986). Contents Introduction: The Robot Chronicles An 18-page introductory essay by Asimov, consisting of 17 pages of text and a one-page illustration by Ralph McQuarrie (these are the page counts of the hardcover edition). This essay (minus the illustration) was later reprinted in Asimov's collection ''Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a brig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (1922–1928)American (1928–1992) , occupation = Writer, professor of biochemistry , years_active = 1939–1992 , genre = Science fiction (hard SF, social SF), mystery, popular science , subject = Popular science, science textbooks, essays, history, literary criticism , education = Columbia University ( BA, MA, PhD) , movement = Golden Age of Science Fiction , module = , signature = Isaac Asimov signature.svg Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astounding Science Fiction
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made ''Astounding'' the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's '' Legion of Space'' and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's ''Foundation'' series, A. E. van Vogt's ''Slan'', and several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Segregationist (short Story)
"Segregationist" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. The story was written in April 1967 and was first published in December in ''Abbottempo'', a magazine produced by Abbott Laboratories, then later included in the collections ''Nightfall and Other Stories'' (1969), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982) and ''Robot Visions'' (1990). Plot summary The story depicts a future where robotic prosthetics for humans and artificially-created organic body-parts for robots (known as Metallos) are commonplace. Metallos have been granted equal status with 'normal' humans. A man, who has been granted the right to long life (possibly immortality) by an official Board of Mortality, meets the surgeon who is to assist in the performance of heart replacement surgery on the man. The surgeon offers him a choice between a metallic or fibrous cyber-heart. The man stubbornly refuses the doctor's attempts to persuade him to accept a fibrous heart, saying that it's "weak," as compar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine
''Asimov's Science Fiction'' is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication frequency is bimonthly (six issues per year). Circulation in 2012 was 22,593, as reported in the annual ''Locus Magazine survey. History ''Asimov's Science Fiction'' began life as the digest-sized ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' (or ''IASFM'' for short) in 1977. Joel Davis of Davis Publications approached Asimov to lend his name to a new science fiction magazine, after the fashion of ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine'' or ''Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine''. Asimov refused to act as editor, but served instead as editorial director, writing editorials and replying to reader mail until his death in 1992. At Asimov's request George Scithers, the first editor, negotiated an acquisitions contract with the Science Fiction Writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Think! (Asimov Short Story)
"Think!" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, first appeared in ''Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine'' in its first issue (Spring 1977). It also appeared in the collections ''The Complete Robot'' and ''Robot Visions''. Plot summary Genevieve Renshaw summons her colleagues, James Berkowitz and Adam Orsino, to show a new discovery that has kept her busy enough for her to ignore all of her other work. She has been able to advance the science of the electroencephalogram by applications of a laser. She compares the current technology in that area to listening to all of the people on two and a half Earths, as not much can be discovered from this listening. Her laser electroencephalogram (LEG) can scan each individual brain cell so rapidly that there is no temperature change, and yet more information is given. She successfully tests this on a marmoset and later Orsino, and then realizes that the LEG allows telepathy. The story ends revealing that the LE ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Infinity Science Fiction
''Infinity Science Fiction'' was an American science fiction magazine, edited by Larry T. Shaw, and published by Royal Publications. The first issue, which appeared in November 1955, included Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star", a story about a planet destroyed by a nova (an exploding star) that turns out to have been the Star of Bethlehem; it won the Hugo Award for that year. Shaw obtained stories from some of the leading writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sheckley, but the material was of variable quality. In 1958 Irwin Stein, the owner of Royal Publications, decided to shut down ''Infinity''; the last issue was dated November 1958. The title was revived a decade later by Stein's publishing house, Lancer Books, as a paperback anthology series. Five volumes were published between 1970 and 1973, edited by Robert Hoskins; a sixth was prepared but withdrawn after Lancer ran into financial problems at the end of 1973. Publication history American sc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Someday (short Story)
"Someday" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the August 1956 issue of ''Infinity Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the collections ''Earth Is Room Enough'' (1957), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), ''Robot Visions'' (1990), and '' The Complete Stories, Volume 1'' (1990). Plot summary The story is set in a future where computers play a central role in organizing society. Humans are employed as computer operators, but they leave most of the thinking to machines. Indeed, whilst binary programming is taught at school, reading and writing have become obsolete. The story concerns a pair of boys who dismantle and upgrade an old ''Bard'', a child's computer whose sole function is to generate random fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bicentennial Man
''The Bicentennial Man'' is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, for a science fiction collection to be published in honor of the United States Bicentennial. However, the arrangement fell through, leaving Asimov's the only story actually completed for the project. Asimov sold the story to Judy-Lynn del Rey, who made some small changes to the text. Asimov restored the original text when the story was collected in ''The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories'' (1976). The story formed the basis of the novel ''The Positronic Man'' (1992), co-written with Robert Silverberg, and the 1999 film ''Bicentennial Man'', starring Robin Williams. In terms of setting, this novelette spans a time period of 200 years. Chapter 13 of the novelette states that "Susan Calvin, the patron saint of all roboticists" had been de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction
''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, ''Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine''. The first issue was titled ''The Magazine of Fantasy'', but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. ''F&SF'' was quite different in presentation from the existing science fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single column format, which in the opinion of science fiction historian Mike Ashley "set ''F&SF'' apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine". ''F&SF'' qu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feminine Intuition
"Feminine Intuition" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov, originally published in the October 1969 issue of ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' and collected in ''The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories'' (1976), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), and ''Robot Visions'' (1990). Plot summary Clinton Madarian, the successor to Susan Calvin at U.S. Robots who has just retired, initiates a project to create a "feminine" robot which not only has female physical characteristics but will (it is hoped) have a brain with " feminine intuition." After several failures together costing half a billion dollars, JN-5 (also known as Jane) is produced and the company plan to use it (her) to analyse astronomical data at the Lowell Observatory at Flagstaff, Arizona, to calculate the most likely stars in the vicinity of Earth to have habitable planets. This will allow the most effective use of the hyperspace In science fiction, hyperspace (also known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Evitable Conflict
"The Evitable Conflict" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It first appeared in the June 1950 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' and subsequently appeared in the collections ''I, Robot'' (1950), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), and ''Robot Visions'' (1990). It features the character Stephen Byerley from the earlier "Evidence". Plot summary Following on from the previous story 'Evidence,' in the year 2052, Stephen Byerley has been elected World Co-ordinator for a second term. Earth is divided into four geographical regions, each with a powerful supercomputer known as a Machine managing its economy. Byerley is concerned as the Machines have recently made some errors leading to economic inefficiency. Consulting with the four regional Vice Co-ordinators, he finds that several prominent individuals and companies associated with the anti-Machine "Society for Humanity" have been damaged by the Machines' apparent mistakes. Byerley believes that the Soci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Lost Robot
"Little Lost Robot" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1947 issue of ''Astounding Science Fiction'' and reprinted in the collections ''I, Robot'' (1950), ''The Complete Robot'' (1982), ''Robot Dreams'' (1986), and ''Robot Visions'' (1990). "Little Lost Robot" was adapted by for the 1962 ABC Weekend TV anthology television series '' Out of This World'', which also marks the first appearance of Susan Calvin, played by Maxine Audley, in TV and movies. It is the only episode of this series that survives in the archives today. It is available on DVD in region 2 from the British Film Institute. Elements of "Little Lost Robot" appeared in the film '' I Robot'' (2004), an otherwise original story using Asimov's brand. The story was broadcast as episode three of a five-part ''15 Minute Drama'' radio adaptation of Asimov's stories on BBC Radio 4 in February 2017. Plot summary At the Hyper Base, a military research station ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
