Words to describe one of the top 20th-century science fiction authors are prolific, philosophical, and accessible. These words explain Isaac Asimov, the college professor, author, and scientist. He explored many ideas, many becoming timeless.
What Inspired Asimov to Write?
Born in Russia in 1920 but raised in Brooklyn, Isaac Asimov attended Columbia University in 1939. With a reputed 160 IQ, Asimov earned three science degrees by 1948, ending with a PhD in Biochemistry. With this, he became known for his intellectual curiosity and ability to explain difficult science topics to ordinary people.
Asimov’s literary career started with Marooned Off Vesta, published in Amazing Stories in 1939. With a love for science and storytelling, he often combined these with his understanding of scientific principles to write credible stories. He wrote non-fiction, too, such as The Inevitability of Life in 1974. This essay reasoned that life wasn’t random but inevitable under the right conditions.
Which of Asimov’s Works Are Best Known?
Isaac Asimov never seemed to stop writing. He penned three epic science fiction stories that still resonate today, either in print or film. The latest, Foundation, debuted on Apple TV in 2021. All three stories existed in the same universe but millennia apart. The first, The Robot Series, occurred on Earth between the 21st and 30th centuries. Its primary novel, I, Robot, introduced if artificial intelligence required ethics. That became the Three Laws of Robotics, meant to control robots’ activities and ethics.
His Empire Series, set after ‘Robot,’ encompassed civilization’s galactic rise and fall. His fictional psychohistory united math and sociology to predict a large population’s future. The books covered 30,000 years of history. Asimov wove in elements of science fiction, sociology, and history in his talks, and maybe science fiction’s most remarkable story. Asimov’s last series appeared in 1953 as a trilogy, with more added years later.
Foundations covered the later years of this saga. Now, a 3,000-year black age is predicted using psycho history. Again, Asimov combined technology and science (fiction) into his narrative, and this became the bedrock of the story.
Why Does Asimov Use Different Themes?
Like any good science fiction writer, Asimov uniquely explored different themes. These examined conflicts, relationships, and possibilities between man and machine or time. The relationship between robots, artificial intelligence, and man became Asimov’s most notable theme. His Three Laws of Robotics provides AI with a code of ethics regarding humans.
Also, Asimov delved into historical analogies, such as civilizations’ collapse and rebirth. Foundations and Galactic Empires mirrored this classic theme and humanity’s ability to adapt. Asimov looked at innovation and evolution in classic stories like Nightfall, about a society living in perpetual daylight. Suddenly, an extended period of darkness looms ahead.
Here, Asimov looks into man’s resilience and cleverness when faced with hardship. The idea of progress he featured in The End of Eternity discusses time travel. Here, an unknown group manipulates time so humans can remain happy. But feeling good comes with a cost that inhibits society. Of course, events happen to wrench up this arrangement. The story’s theme of innovation shouldn’t be just for innovation’s sake.
Not even death and renewal escaped Asimov’s pen. His story The Last Answer tackled a complex mix of themes: existence, having purpose, and eternity. The main character, a physicist, dies without warning but finds his ‘self’ in an abyss. Next, he meets another consciousness called the Entity, which claims it, alone, keeps people alive after death. Together, they contemplate the universe, but the man becomes disillusioned. After all, eternity is forever, causing the man to reject the whole process as useless. The themes (immortality, life without meaning) are existential questions, perhaps even without answers. Asimov hints that living in the present could be better than forever.
What Timeless Words Did Asimov Coin?
Asimov’s creativity added now-popular terms to science fiction’s lexicon, much like Star Trek’s iconic phrase “Beam me up, Scotty.” And speaking of Star Trek, the android Commander Data’s ‘positronic brain’ described robotic brains.
A second word is ‘Multivac’, used to define a supercomputer. Other sci-fi authors frequently use the idea of an advanced supercomputer. The HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey controls the ship, interacts with the crew, and much more. Other iconic words include ‘Spacers’ or humans from other planets with vastly different cultures and values.
Asimov’s writings even added a definition to foundation from his series Foundations. A foundation now also means a plan, group, or arrangement to preserve knowledge during wars or turmoil. Simply put, Asimov’s work is timeless. His influence on other sci-fi writers, coining the term ‘robotics’ and philosophical questions about humanity, was, and is, immense.
