Isaac Asimov on Bill Moyers World of Ideas pt 3

[Mentalplix]

I love the idea of always learning. He talks of a famous man reading a Greek grammer book on his deathbed to: "improve his mind". There's something beautiful about that, especially today, where you are considered over the hill if you're over thirty. The truth is, if you keep an inquisitive mind, you'll live a full and wondrous life because you'll never stop discovering new ideas.

[quidproquo2004]

Asimov and Moyers, this is just gold.

[lordmahan11]

I feel one of Asimov's comment captures his real feelings of faith: He puts his trust in reason because he knows now where else to put it. If his understanding of the rationality of faith increased, and he knew that faith as being a hope for things unseen but are true, he would realize how much faith in involved in the pursuit of science. I do not believe he is against religion or the idea of God; rather, his experiences have left him merely skeptical. No blame there.

[D3ADCrAzY]

I could listen to him talk for hours on end. I wish there was more of him.

[Giby86]

Modest? Asimov??

[mikepep33]

He was a farily modest guy and a genius as well. I wish more thinkers were like him, instead of being stuck-up assholes.

[TuNuCedeMalis]

Using rational thinking to destroy rational thinking is like cutting off the branch your sitting on. Yet, this is the very thing many religions do. Pastor after pastor preaching the irrationality of rationality. How faith should replace reason, an ancient book replace evidence, the unknown replace the known."saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster then humanity gathers wisdom"

[fishslappingdance]

I grew up reading Isaac Asimov.....I was an avid arty type, but he completely got me into science and rationalisation. And its ok to be both, as he showed me. Thanks Isaac!

[mcmbook]

I love this man's thinking. I never knew about him. What a visionary..

On the question on rationality, he mentioned rationality and faith.. It seems to me that he overlooked feelings and what a tremendous role they play in human life. I wonder why.. In fact when people act outside of rationality, they are often driven by emotions. The way I understand it, one doesn't go without the other, they always complement one another.

[tamburarasa]

I love this man's thinking. I never knew about him. What a visionary..

On the question on rationality, he mentioned rationality and faith.. It seems to me that he overlooked feelings and what a tremendous role they play in human life. I wonder why.. In fact when people act outside of rationality, they are often driven by emotions. The way I understand it, one doesn't go without the other, they always complement one another.

[jhof989620]

This was wonderful..........thanks. At 41...I needed this.

[TheBadunka]

@jhof989620 You should watch some of carl sagan's poetry about life, and richard dawkins speach about life aswell, they are uplifting if you are ever depressed.

[LeMegasandwich]

@TheBadunka Or put a pencil to paper and see the real reason science is great ^_^

[Simpson654]

Some bloggers consistently misspell words, and it's hard to take them seriously if they can't even write correctly. Some bloggers write great prose, but are so wrong, it hurts my brain. Still, elocution, or rhetoric should still be taught in schools. I had some of it, but they called appeal to the Bible a valid argument. After that debate I never paid any attention in school.

[richirare]

"I can't wait until everybody in the world is rational, just until enough are rational to make a difference".

What a brilliant, great line to finish a superb interview.

[Simpson654]

Isaac Asimov was an expeptional man. He truly earned his first name, as Isaac Newton before him, he was a great thinker. And a true 20th century hero, almost akin to Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Erwin Schrödinger, and all the greats that brought our knowledge of the universe to what we now know. His contributions were more like that of Carl Sagan; educators, inspirators, imaginators. Without imagination science is dead, without science, knowledge is dead, without knowledge, humanity is dead.

[gulllars]

@Simpson654 He was certainly brilliant on a comparable level to those guys. A couple of big differences, you point out the first one, is that he was a great educator (both written word and public), and the other is he was a great polymath. Like Leonardo DaVinci (also a polymath) centuries before him, he was a visionary, a mind ahead of his time, and i have a feeling more of the things he predicted and spoke about will come true the next decades and centuries.

[MrChickensoup]

humility and honesty the world needs people like this.

[hunchaz]

1:17 --> 2:25 so true!

[gamccoy]

He died too young. I think he could have churned out another 200 books. There will never be another man quite like him.

[VenomOXP]

Wow!I am so very impressed by this man! I never knew his brilliance until having seen this video. I bought his book "the currents of space" for 10 cents at a salvation army, and it was the most valuable 10 cent purchase i'll likely ever make. Thanks uploader!

[darkmagus64]

for those who don't want to be American idiots.

[rogats]

Absolutely fantastic!

[sw8074]

MASTER!

[Zeta2103]

I fuckin love this man.

And he is so in true.

Fuck off god!!

[essentialmindz]

Great man.... I wonder if he knew if humanity would be as unreasonable today as they were when this was filmed. His thoughts and logical reasoning resembles my own.

[TheDreamMechanic]

"Is it possible that you suffer from an excessive trust in rationality?" = Fantastic question.

Men such as Asimov are primo examples of the left hemisphere of our brain in full career. But let us not forget; the afore mentioned "mysticism" in part is the biproduct of right brained thinking, being irrational and moreso intuitive. The idea here is to get both hemispheres working in unison. One could argue that life itself is irrational. Still, though, a great man with a great mind.

[FieldingYost]

@TheDreamMechanic fantastic question because it was such an indirect religious question, maybe what he meant was, is your Atheism well founded? is it possible that your wrong?

[TheDreamMechanic]

@FieldingYost

Of course it's possible. But in this particular case, the whole of fundamental psychology would have to be scapped in lieu of an entirely new paradigm regarding human consciousness.

[BIGGLBY]

5:32

[scifi75]

Isaac Asimov is yet another intelligent human being who was not been replaced by even remotely close to his caliber.. How is that our society has gone from admiring people like this to placing such dredge like Paris Hilton and Jon and Kate Gosselin on a pedestal?

[ender003]

@scifi75 True that. There's no reason anyone should even know who those people are.

[hablerz]

@scifi75 People *seem* a lot dumber thesedays , homogenised and banal. All the great thinkers are old men, its like the past 50 years hasnt produced as many.

We seem to be in an era of mediocrity.

[mjufpn]

@hablerz more like idiocracy

[Simpson654]

@hablerz

It's not as if there aren't as many smart people around, it's only that the Internet has made their voice smaller. It took effort to get published some 60 years ago. Nowadays anyone can get on the net and do a blog. Instead of carefully choosing your words as you write down your ideas, you do it in a second and there it is, published on the net. So I value them on the use of proofreading. Either automatic, or manual, still, if you can't be bothered to proofread your writing...

[LesPaul2006]

@hablerz We'll get out soon. I believe it.

[zerobeat18]

@hablerz I see a guy like Neil DeGrasse Tyson as picking up where some these guys have left off. Ok, he's 51. But I'm hoping there are bunch of 25 year olds right now who will become the Asimovs or Tysons or Dawkins or Fenymans of the future..... great intellects AND great communicators.

[FractalBolt]

His voice was very calm, he was such a champion. It's good to listen to him, specially in these crazy times.

[Kakarot21591]

This man reminds me of my grandfather, who was also an intelligent Russian-American Jewish New Yorker! He sounds just like him!

[dzelde]

Reason and rationalism really seems to be the best thing to follow tought there is problem to rely to those facts and logic. It can be easily seen how new facts and different logic changes the reason we used to rely on. We have to choose - should we keep to the old 'truth', or go with the new facts, or creatively analyze more ways for our knowledge. Personally, I would always accept existing facts but won't rely on them and leave space for alternative reason & faith.

[SpazzzDog]

Asimov must be rolling over in his grave with Creationism taking over in this country.

[LDP060681]

@SpazzzDog Asimov would be unsurprised man. The guy describes every piece of hell that's landed on the kids born in the late 70s and early 80s. We're living everything he forewarns against. Oh to be an oblivious babyboomer, or ww2 genius like Asimov, Sagan, or Feynmann.

[bkishar]

USA Todays Snapshot for 29 June was a survey in which 1000 adults were asked to name a famous scientist. Here are the results: 47% named Albert Einstein 23% could not name anyone 6% named Marie Curie  4% named Louis Pasteur 4% named Thomas Edison

[TheDreamMechanic]

@bkishar

I would have said Nikoka Tesla...just to see if the USA Today reporter knew who he was.

[bkishar]

@TheDreamMechanic

Sadly a popular science writer wrote a book on the history of electricity "The Electric Universe" and failed to mention Tesla even once!!

[danielz4485]

@bkishar

I see the point your making here, I think it's wrong. I'd say 'how does the light bulb work' is far better a question than 'who was Thomas Edison', and how to solve 'the twin paradox' is more important than 'who was Albert Einstein'. And more than that, the measurement shouldn't be who knew the answer, but how many tried to look it up later on. In this sense, the internet does make our lives more meaningful.

[bkishar]

Asimov, Feynman, Sagan, Gould. Is it me or is there a severe lack of public intellectuals of this caliber in our day? Could this be a testimony to the continued decline in scientific and rational aptitude in the United States?

[ambigera]

@bkishar Or is it an indicator that the greatest minds are more preoccupied with their work? I'm sure Edward Witten will have a career as productive as Feynmann's but will anyone really know who he is? I'm also sure that businessmen like Bill Gates are incredibly good at producing value but how much do we really know about them? I think it's a good thing because it means the world is a lot less centralized and knowledge costs a lot less to find.

[ambigera]

@bkishar If you want to find out what someone of the caliber of Asimov has to say today you can either look it up in Wikipedia or watch a webcast lecture they gave.

[tiuric77]

What about when the sun blows up in 5 billion years??!!!??? We might all be dead, let's worry!!! Turn your worry meters to full.

[Keller214]

We do need more people like Isaac Asimov. Learn, live, and become someone who is not afraid to explore with the mind. That is how we change the world. It might be small, but it is something, and just look at the difference one person can make.

[ZachClooney]

These Asimov interviews are fantastic. Thanks cybersputnik.

[ScarletandCreme32]

What an amazing man.

[imaginopictures]

fucking asimov I love you sir

[voteboo]

why Moyers repeatedly says "hooi" instead of "why", and "hooat" instead of "what"?

It's somewhat annoying.

[manteaca]

Hooat do you mean? Hooi you say that? Hoo are you? hoan has this happenned?

[satyricon451]

if you can get over it, then you can probably get something out of this

[Tralababalan]

This is well spoken man.

[BarmielNagisa]

Fate cannot be given or taken, why because it's our own, yes there is paranoia about how it affects other people and yet its a thing still shared by other people, to answer Isaac question fate is only there when needed and it only comes in small portions that are accessible only by that person and is not negotiable by any other human being (in short its your own but everyone has a general name to it)

[Lion117]

two great men.

[Jitpring]

How does he know that mysticism is bunk?

[Darkgrammer]

Because it leads nowhere but a temp. euphoric state of mind.

[Jitpring]

How does he, and how do you, know that?

[FeelOfFriction]

Because it's made up!

[REPCLONE]

we need more isaac's

[anjamann]

desperately so.

[speakupforjustice]

the young elon musk ceo of space x, tesla roadster, solar city--shares Asimov's vision of space exploration, education, promoting peace and preventing global warming by reducing our dependence on foriegn oil. One asimov is enough, he's provided the teaching, now we need people to implement his dreams...

[PSmithFortyTwo]

Enjoyable interview and very impressive body of work.

@ 4:30 on 'faith' - it is fascinating to compare to Jung on Faith and God "I know. I don't need to believe. I know". - ?v=WJ25Ai__FYU

It says elsewhere that IA wrote books in (and had studied) nine of the ten categories of knowledge on the Dewey system, -- excepting only Philosophy and Psychology -- which make's one speculate what Type IA was, and why he had such a strong avoidance of psychology.

[LeoAutodidact]

It's not that he had an "avoidance" of it (he married a Psychologist, after all) but that he was more interested in things that had more certainty to them. That could be shown to be likely, or to be able to be proven wrong. Things where the "truth" of a subject was a matter of opinion seemed pointless to him. He wanted to "know" not to "know what YOUR guess is."

[Norbert2]

It's reassuring to know that there are people in the world who are (way) more intelligent than I am. Not hat I'm that intelligent, but I see so much stupidity around me.

[dublo7]

Asimov would have spat if he saw the anti-intellectualism that went on in this previous American election.

[Xandirfan]

☯

[gukakmakuk]

This jewish russian american dude is probably one of science´s all time greatest minds.Every word that comes out of his mouth is backed by probably the largest collection of data and reflection any human brain has had in history.Not that he was perfect or that everything he said is the absolute truth but his far reaching synthetic vision qualifies him as a modern prophet we should pay attention to.A hard to find kind of genius.Died of AIDS he caught in a blood transfusion.

[Darkgrammer]

Ironic that he died of AIDS due to lack of scientific knowledge.

Cruel, ironic life it is.

Nonetheless a great man and writer.

[voteboo]

what was it? HIV or something else?

[TheAmazingLeztits]

he actually died of kidney fal\ilure but he did have AIDS which he aquired from one of his several blood transfusions to fix his kidney problem.

[harshvgaus]

imagine if he had a mullet

[doctorasstastic]

hahaha, or a feathered mr T style earing.

[andrewniles1]

Im reading Robots AND Empire. Great books. Reading his stuff really makes me think diffrently.

[choyadavis]

Cool guy. One of my heroes, and no one has even come close to filling Asimov's niche as "THE Prolific Writer". That guy wrote books on every subject you can think of. He even wrote a guide on how to be A Dirty Old Man. (not kidding!) Not only prolific, but he wrote well, too. He could take the most complex, and otherwise dry & boring subject and make it both compelling and comprehensible.

[andrewniles1]

I gotta grow me some lamb chops like that. In his honor.

[Keylimedelight]

Mutten chops

[NorseRonin]

LMAO andrewniles1.... "lamb chops" :D

[Pyloff]

Found this on digg and I'm happily watching the last part. Wonderful stuff. I'm glad I was an avid fan of his.

[JoeltheStampede]

He said Carl Sagaan was the only other person he had ever met that was smarter than him. Look him up in our great library that we call, the interweb.

[tandom]

Since I grew up reading his books and he shaped my outlook on life, he seems all the more brilliant now looking back at him. In those books he heroified his ideals and offered glimpses of his outlook on the universe through his characters. Because of that he himself seems like the embodiment of his protagonists; a Elijah Baley or Hober Mallow

[JoeltheStampede]

Its the only real way to write a story. Although you can embody your antagonist and side characters as well.

[djanigav]

He is Da Man!

[heethen1]

What a man. Thanks so much for uploading this

[Mantour]

Such a great man..

[gyco7]

good stuff.