Isaac Asimov on The Golden Age of Science Fiction

[AQGOAT24]

@cgn1fcance You can oppose it under the pretense that it isn't true under base three numbering. However, I agree with what you said.

[messengercrow]

he was a blue-eyed jew

[Iceycool8607]

I love this guy!!!

[Animeman73]

Isaac Asimov is indeed one of the greatest Science Fiction authors of all time. I'll also say this. While I believe in the Big bang theory I also believe that there was a God that pushed the proverbial "button". I believe in this crazy and unpredicatble universe that there's room enough for everyone. So I say let's all just relax and take a good long doese of chill. This mortal existance is short enough as is.

[chroniclerofthe70s]

@jmoney507 The Big Bang Theory is not an idea, there is evidence of it's occurrence by the fact that 3 degree Kelvin background radiation is detectable all around the Earth. NASA has scheduled for launch by 2015, several gravitational wave detectors which may partly answer the question what came before the Big Bang. I do not believe in science; science is the process of testing hypothesis to add further understanding of natural phenomena. Science can also be applied to practical problems.

[MobiusRoom]

anyone read "its such a beautifull day" by Asimov?....totaly prophetic..written in 1953.....the story totally describes the internet and wot its doing to us ,but also the system operating it is called 'Doors' which is uncannilly close to 'Windows'...how did he foresee Windows in 1953???....

[ethositachi]

@MobiusRoom

Maybe Bill Gates or someone else at microsoft was familiar with Asimov's work and was thusly influenced.

If Asimov had called his OS 'windows' too, instead of 'doors', hopefully you wouldn't ascribe that to his prescience lol

[MobiusRoom]

@ethositachi im just saying he foresaw the os and how it connects to the internet and how it would affect us ,very accurately, in 1953.......maybe microsoft were influenced in their naming of it and maybe not.... but i dont think that affects whether or not Asimov was prescient in seeing those developments and how they join together and how that might affect us.. .i think he was!!

[THEMANOUTOFTHECAVE]

@cgn1fcance I'm a gnostic (sort of) and I don't agree with either atheism or religion. But I read Asimov (atheist) or Dostoevskij (christian) and enjoy both. If someone is intelligent you must admire his intelligence despite him being right/wrong or wether you disagree or not.

[Giby86]

I cannot help smiling stupidly every time I hear him talk. 

[nontheistdavid]

Issac IS GOD!

[macanaso1234]

his bottom lip is just soo freakin huge

[bullmeecham]

@jmoney507 jmoney, you're a civil guy and very polite & I appreciate that. Your religion has taught you not to question "it." Faith & belief are supposed to be unshakable and unbreakable, etc. So we really have no place in "reality" to discuss this from. I do however get your point, and before I woke up to the reality of things I used to live 'the life.' That's why I now know better. Much better. Thanks.

[bullmeecham]

@jmoney507 Newton could not profess his homosexuality, or feelings on God due to the Era. An Era, thank god :p long gone despite the best efforts of radical xtians and muslims. You've yet again dug up an OLD tried and true mindless argument for "belief" in citing others who have shared the beliefs YOU hold. LOL - do you see the stupidity of your point yet? Being brilliant does not make one immune to being wrong, gullible, superstitious, and misguided. Shall I cite historical examples?

[bullmeecham]

@jmoney507 "Believers" will just endlessly harp away on what science cannot do. Unbelievable the pseudoscience crap your preachers put in your head. Your christian based arguments are worthless since they are based on the supernatural. The Big Bang is a "theory" and it's being investigated & tested. Any thermo-nuke explosion is proof it's a sound idea, get it? A theory is worked on, it grows & changes. You just believe & IN THE TOTAL ABSENCE of all facts or proof. Like a scared caveman.

[bullmeecham]

@jmoney507 Actually one's belief correlates exactly with one's intelligence, idiotic to say otherwise. And clearly one's gullibility & childhood indoctrination as well. Most believers are thoroughly indoctrinated in "religion" from a young age so it's hard to give it up. It's the opium of the tired & down trodden masses. You'd see that if you could break free from it. So, no correlation to intelligence you say, ha, YOU believe in something that is not there = pure cave man ignorance.

[Rodimus78]

You guys really need to take your silly pious arguments somewhere else.

-R78

[azmanabdula]

POINT IM MAKING: why would anyone waste their time on something NOBODY knows exists, WASTE OF TIME ,instead scientist dabble in what is mathmatically viable/ and is observable/ otherwise we might be wasting our time.......GET IT YET

or do we have to admit the yeti lives in my backyard CAUSE I CANT PROVE OTHERWISE......OR EVEN BETTER MY EYES CANT SEE IT CAUSE I DONT BELEIVE ...OR ITS HAIR IS MADE OF AN OUTERWORLDLY INTER-UNIVERSAL metal made of LOVE!!!!!!

[azmanabdula]

castle rock fan, YOUR MISSING THE POINT, BY FAR!!!!

TO CLAIM SOMETHING EXIST BASED ON NO PROOF IS ABSURD BUT BECAUSE THEIR IS NO PROOF TO DISPROVE SUCH A CLAIM IT THEREFORE MUST BE REAL like fairies n mermaids dam like the wind upon your face ,you cant see it but you know its their. like my country AUSTRALIA

some of you have never been here and vise versa BUT YOU KNOW IT EXISTS FROM EVIDENCE .........why stop at god

GET CREATIVE AND MAKE UP SOMETHING NEW

[PhilK1231]

Asimov is a great miss.

Only Piers Anthony answered all his mail - like isaac did.

[CastleRockFan]

I consider myself an optimistic agnostic. Why not, y'know?

And atheism isn't very scientifically sound, by the way. To be an atheist, you have to completely reject the possibility of something that has never been disproven. Agnosticism is the only sensible choice, in my mind.

[VViitard]

agnostic people are athiests that don't have balls

[CastleRockFan]

I fucking hate people. Especially those who don't have the brain power sufficient to spell 'atheist' correctly.

[Advancedgod]

@CastleRockFan You're never called upon to prove a negative. If someone says 'you can't proof that the smallest asteroid in the asteroid belt is made out of jam and speaks French', then I'd say, 'I don't have to, you never have to proof a negative'. He'd have to proof it to be true. That's how proof works.

[bowiepest]

He was a humanist. You wonderful people.

[CRUDSLUDGE]

faith is a conviction; asimov was a humanist so he had faith; all beliefs are spiritual in many senses; its best to stay positive and agree to disagree

[leadfeet123]

secular humanism denies supernaturality in its essence

[b0b95eg]

OK people, I'll tell you the truth once and for all. There is no god.

[TheRoosterTooth]

Probablly, but i still believen in him, its better to believe in something than to be athiest, i dont want to be a tree.

[bullmeecham]

@TheRoosterTooth It's scary to face the reality that you're not special and god is a human creation and fulfills certain psychological needs. Believe in yourself and cease with stupidity and indoctrinated belief. Set yourself free. Careful, takes guts (perhaps more than a simple minded person has) Good luck.

[Alexsuper15]

I am an atheist.

Becouse of people like you i cant say all religius are crazy, fanatics etc. =). Peace brother we all share one thing ,our humanity.

[bullmeecham]

@Alexsuper15 You can can still say it - a wolf in sheeps clothes is STILL a wolf. All religions are full of extremes and extremists. ANYONE who believes a guy in the sky controls everything and unless he, she or it is appeased in some way your eternal soul is damned is an EXTREMIST and a nutjob who is bound in mental chains by a 5K old belief system from a different age. All religious people believe an extreme concept - a god.

[Zombie1213]

i'm going to say this and you can argue all you want about it. I feel that I don't believe in god. that may change but I feel that instead of killing others over religion we should realize that "salvation" does not come from a single divine being or deity, but on the atoms and particles that we are all "built" from and the fact that we control our spirits and that by thinking rationally we can all achieve more than thinking irrationally and killing ourselves over our beliefs.

[tukkek]

I guess at this point it doesn't matter if you do or do not believe in God. Even if He exists, He's not stopping us from starving each other to death and making war.

Thinking rationally and respecting others should be our main concerns, despite anyone's religious orientation.

[AQGOAT24]

@tukkek Humanism is the way to go.

[Gondin1]

What is humorous to me is, that atheist's have nothing in which to base their belief. I'd rather have hope than no hope.

[dude18926]

First off, I think it's sad that you believe that the only thing people can believe in is divine power. Isaac Asimov chose to believe in the power of human dignity and rational thought to accomplish great things. To believe not that there wasn't a god, but that he was irrelevant. good luck waiting for the lord to pull your life out of the gutter, I choose to do it myself

[Gondin1]

But He has got me the gutter many a time, my friend, He has.

"When faith fails you, you replace it with rational thought. But there is no love in thought, nothing that lasts in deduction, only death in rationalism."

[dude18926]

First off, I could quote other people all day and get nowhere, be original or be somewhere else. Secondly, I love and have faith in myself, and the people who hold me up, rational thought earns me a life free of compromise, where all my accomplishments are mine own.

[Gondin1]

Well, I'm not going to argue theology with you. Argument leads nowhere. Because, in the end, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is King of king's and Lord of lords.

Whether you chose not to believe right now doesn't matter, you'll have to get in front of God someday and give an account on what you've done for His kingdom.

Also: pride cometh before a fall, my friend. Be careful in what you do -- you can't hide from God forever.

[quidproquo2004]

I'd rather have faith in myself and fulfill my own goals than to simply hope for them to come true.

[spaceorbison]

Atheist's have beliefs they just don't have the belief in God.

[bambinogsnumber1]

Isaac Asimov

[osotoron]

I am marvelous that how the agnosytics and atheists believe that a christian have a "religion". No, my friend, a true christian don´t have a religion. Have a SAVIOUR. Religion is for the people that not have or not like to know His only Saviour, is for that that they invented religions. No is a marvelous thing to have the experience of have a comunication and reltionship with the Holy Spirit, the Paracletos, the Creator of all things, and who show to every one the true?

[osotoron]

No, we need only "that book and God", we need to see every day the wonderful miracles of God in the natura, in us, in our parents when they are sick and God in the name of Jesus give health, we need to feel the love, peace, hapiness, patient, fortress, strenght of the Holy Spirit in our spirit and walk with power of god and proposal in all our ways. We need to feel and understand that our lives have a glorious final when we enter to the Heaven, and no only die forever.

[andrewniles1]

Asimov was a good guy and a genius

[shampoovta]

It pisses me off Sifi channel is not more like Amazing Stories.I used to work at RALPH'S COMIC CORNER in VENTURA, CA. in the 80's. One day I asked what Ralph collected and he showed me a back room with the walls filled with pulp sifi. He said they are not worth anything except to him because they disintegrated so fast.

I never forgot that.

[osotoron]

Jesus Christ really exist, no only the Bible tell about him but Josefo, jew no christian, Plinio, Tácito, Julius the african, Samosata, and other serious writers sirians, romans, greeks, including emperators. The true christians don´t have gods in their hearts, we have one God, our Saviour and Lord, Jesus. And we love homosexuals, atheists, prostitutes, drunkers, thiefs, murders but we hate their sins, we preach them the necessity of repent and accept the salvation of Jesus

[osotoron]

All that you mentioned is the conseqcuences of the sins in all men that rejected to repent of their and accept the grace and salvation of Jesus in his life. Jesus said that in his name many people would made terrible things, falses Christs, falses prophets (Matthew 24:5,6) and in John 16:1-4 Jesus propheticed about Inquisition and Cruzades for falses christians. But all true christian have in his hearth the love of God for other people, including his own human enemies.

[osotoron]

By 6000 years, the Bible had been the most read book in the world. His words gave inspiration to Michelangelo, Beethoven, Mother Teresa, Federico Froebel, Galileo Galilei, and inspirated people to create hospitals, centers of help to poor people, leprosaries. The teachings of Jesus Christ had been more good to the world than other person. Nations that their people believe in Jesus and in Bible in past, today have the better quality of life: EU, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, etc

[osotoron]

The first of the wisdom, say the Bible is the reverent fear to God. all son of God have the wisdom of Christ, his intelligence, science, hability, power, love to live his or her life plenty, full of blessings spiritual, material, social, intelectual, artistic, travels, etc. The most idiot in the God´s Kingdom is more strenght and wisdom of the people of the world that reject Jesus Christ and his salvation by grace. Sorry! all the true christians have the better of the life

[byrnecobain]

Yeah I just started reading them they're some of the best books I've ever read.

[TwistedBeats615]

asimov is a genious, his stories and beliefs changed my life as they will transcend time

[sslyj200]

Excellent Video materials for EFL learners for Listening Comprehension Practice.

[davidls11]

Fans should read the book "Science Fiction Before the Golden Age", an anthology of SF stories written in the 1920's and 1930's, each story introduced and put into context by Dr. Asimov.

[revjimbob]

Fascinating stuff.

[indisaac1]

i´m really proud of my name :P

[visceralgristle]

Please.. stop it. Just stop it.

[osotoron]

I am stange and pilgrim on the earth, I walk to my real country: Heaven. Sorry, but I can´t stop. If you want, you can go with me to the New Earth and New Heaven, only believe in Jesus Christ. God loves you in great form that He send his only begotten Son, that if you believe in Him no perish but have eternal life (John 3:16 Your Bible)

[visceralgristle]

The bible is book of ancient fairy tales written by privative superstitious people who thought the sun went around the earth.

God is Santa Claus for adults.

Please, start reading and learning about real history and science, rather than a book of spooky legends and tall tales.

[visceralgristle]

You're a nutter.

[grubbiethebum]

Oh, think for yourself for a change instead of mentally copying and pasting.

[grubbiethebum]

That's fine, but why do you have to barge into a science fiction video and leave advertisements for your religion here? You don't see MST3K fans leaving comments on Wailing Wall videos, I don't think.

That's fine that you have something to believe in but this video is a tribute to the cultural influence of Isaac Asimov. If you want to praise God, why not upload some videos and do it that way instead of leaving comments that don't really tie in in any way here?

[666theboogieman666]

You don't get it, do you?

[TwistedBeats615]

seeing you mindless catholic slave is just sad. Try understanding life by yourself instead of reading your LIES. What makes you think that what is in the bible is more thrutfull than in any fiction book? The bible is in fact the best and worst fiction book ever written (and by people far more ignorant than Dr.Asimov). Never forget that thruth is only a concept and that perception is the key of life my sad friend.

[osotoron]

The bible is the guide for understand the life. Thanks

[osotoron]

All that the Bible say can be prove today by the serious sciences, the Bible wasn´t written by the catholic institution, because the catholicism was born in the IV century when Constantine give liberty to profess christianity in the Roman Empire, and some false brothers in Christ entry to the politic power and stablish catholic church (no christian church) Bible was written by jews (kings, shepperds, fishers, prophets, leaders, patriarcs, 40) inspired by the Holy Ghost.

[SerielThriller]

i look everywhere for his books and read all of them

[theblastocyst]

best author ever. his imagination was incredible and his writing was perfect

[SerielThriller]

yeah

[JDBW]

Thanx for putting this up! I have a paper due on him.

[Kylork]

He's interesting to watch and listen to him. Looks like the video was cut short.

[20mmnagler]

I miss him too. Most of what I really know about science and the scientific method, I learned from Isaac Asimov.

[SigmaEntertainment88]

GENIUS no more words needed...

[baley7]

thanks for uploading. Asimov was a legend.

[misavai777]

Asimov rules! Once I read "the last question" I changed forever, it gave me a whole vission of me in this world. The only thing I didn't like about his philosophy is that he believed that after death there's just about nothing..., I'm not a religious man yet I believe there's something on the other side, but it's more a wish than a fact. ok see ya

[flixmajor]

Asimov was A GENIUS.

[reinforcedpenisstem]

Asimov is a complete legend. Nice post.

[britethorn]

Thanks for posting this. The Good Doctor is greatly missed.