Interview With Isaac Asimov (1975)

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  • Опубліковано 12 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 126

  • @meatwax
    @meatwax 3 роки тому +40

    "I don't like to travel, it keeps me away from my typewriter"
    Dude is a Legend.

  • @Spoomis
    @Spoomis 5 років тому +31

    This is what talk shows should be. No stupid games. No embarrassing questions. Just two grown men having an intelligent conversation.

  • @drmosfet
    @drmosfet 3 роки тому +22

    Down to earth and straightforward just like his story telling, with out insulting his audience intelligence, I tried reading a large sci-fi book multiple times, never could keep my interest until I picked up a foundation book his writing style just click and I was gone.

    • @nem447
      @nem447 3 роки тому +3

      Nearly all the exposition and narration is done by the characters themselves...

    • @todalio9238
      @todalio9238 2 роки тому +1

      I read the 5 of Foundation in the time of 1 month. I have a bit of OCD, though, might explain why his precise writting and ample details kept me hooked up.
      The only writing comparable to making someone "medused" I found is probably Dune from F.H. I want to precise I only read the 2 first base part of Dune, not the expanded stories.

  • @BM24DK
    @BM24DK 9 років тому +150

    My right ear is a bit lonely.

  • @rockedthecrapout
    @rockedthecrapout 8 років тому +37

    Dr. Asimov was a cool dude.

  • @teethompson7756
    @teethompson7756 3 роки тому +17

    What a fantastic mind. It's no wonder he and Carl Sagan were good friends. Two great writers we were fortunate to have had.

    • @todalio9238
      @todalio9238 2 роки тому +1

      A conversation record between the two of them is probably something I would find to be as much important as is the Bible for others.
      Asimoz and Sagan chilling and talking together? For me, this would be a worth I cannot define.

  • @rp627
    @rp627 2 роки тому +6

    wow, didn't expect him to be so... normal! so lovely. :) i love writers from his time, they have a simple-ness to them, effortlessly talking about what may be complex to good conversation, or story.

  • @jeffryphillipsburns
    @jeffryphillipsburns 2 роки тому +5

    I like the reference to Lem. I’ve read Lem fairly extensively and consider him and H.G. Wells the best two science-fiction writers ever. In my youth I read Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, Fred Hoyle. and Andre Norton. I also read some Heinlein, but I found myself generally disliking Heinlein (with two exceptions: “Stranger in a Strange Land” and a children’s book called “Have Spacesuit, Will Travel”). My favorite Asimov science-fiction novel is “The Gods Themselves”.

  • @rockstar2012r
    @rockstar2012r 9 років тому +16

    He speaks with certain radiating elegance and confidence

  • @ernestturriziani2489
    @ernestturriziani2489 Рік тому +4

    A wonderful writer and talker.

  • @ScienceFictionBiology
    @ScienceFictionBiology 12 років тому +16

    I like his point that when people talk about SF writers "predicting" the future, they are really cherry-picking from a huge body of work, including lots of wrong stuff too.

  • @friedrichfermi6559
    @friedrichfermi6559 2 роки тому +3

    He is clearly one of the most brilliant writer in human history. Maybe the most.

  • @AndrozaniCritic1999
    @AndrozaniCritic1999 10 років тому +50

    I would've rather listened to Asimov for those first couple minutes.

    • @seanwebb605
      @seanwebb605 7 років тому +5

      It use to be quite common for the host to set up long interviews like this. They droned on forever.

    • @JoshKaufmanstuff
      @JoshKaufmanstuff 6 років тому +3

      perhaps a ploy to make the guest seem comparatively interesting by stronger contrast? ;)

    • @ScreaminJames
      @ScreaminJames 3 роки тому +3

      Asimov looked like he was going to pass out from boredom...😂

  • @MrFunnyassstuff
    @MrFunnyassstuff 10 років тому +38

    22:13 Well we're screwed

    • @samb202
      @samb202 3 роки тому +1

      We were either way, both scenarios call for a “small population”.

  • @joestitz539
    @joestitz539 10 років тому +8

    Excellent movie he wrote. 'nightfall'. Grreat sci fi movie. they say the best of all time :)
    Also wrote ligit book about free energy back in the late 50's.
    'life and energy'.

  • @CulainRuledByVenus
    @CulainRuledByVenus 6 місяців тому

    10:42 - 11:06 Great description of how any given story would qualify as Science Fiction.

  • @glendanielson9006
    @glendanielson9006 2 роки тому +2

    What a fantastic writer and thinker!!! 🪐

  • @comporellon
    @comporellon 13 років тому +4

    clear and modest
    how typical for the good Doctor

  • @PC4USE1
    @PC4USE1 3 роки тому +2

    Dr Asimov,one of my favorite authors,is proof positive that even though you have an accent that others look down on(Mine is South Side Chicago) it does not interfere with your intellect. An author of Space stories(among others),he shares with me an aversion to flying.He died of AIDS due to a bad blood transfusion. R I P

  • @paulmurphy42
    @paulmurphy42 11 років тому +3

    Well done Simon...and Isaac. Nice little interview.

  • @edmund184
    @edmund184 8 років тому +25

    He wrote 500 books and should have got the Nobel Prize.

    • @IsaacAsimov1992
      @IsaacAsimov1992 5 років тому +1

      + edmund184
      Yes.

    • @FIT2BREAD
      @FIT2BREAD 3 роки тому +4

      He should receive it for the Foundation trilogy at the very least

  • @allgood6760
    @allgood6760 Місяць тому +1

    Science fiction is becoming science fact.. where the future is going is mind boggling 🤔

  • @BaldingEagle51
    @BaldingEagle51 4 роки тому +4

    Such an accurate introduction, and then what would amount to a roasting by today's standards! Dr. Asimov toughed it out, answered accurately, and made it positive. If anything, you were too modest. Your predictions were the best, and we will make the year 2520 the best year ever, Lije.

  • @jackw4573
    @jackw4573 2 роки тому +2

    This interviewer sounds so much like Jordan Peterson.

  • @bengomes834
    @bengomes834 2 роки тому

    If you like science fiction, this is a must-watch video. I had no idea it existed. A lovely and insightful conversation - honest and non-self promoting in a way that seems rare today. A few things that stood out. That the love of writing may be at odds with a love of reading. That the study of a thing might make that thing less enjoyable (science fiction in this case!). That the 'literariness' of science fiction is a net loss (he says this in a self-effacing way - that he does not feel literary enough to contribute). I personally believe that the truth is otherwise - a lovely flight of words can hide the ordinariness of the ideas involved). That most science fiction does not turn out to be true, but it is nevertheless the most important literary form because it imagines a world that will be very different from that of today, and that is the actual reality we live in.

  • @whozaynnn
    @whozaynnn 3 роки тому +2

    I'm here because my Prof told me to do so. 😊

  • @kompetop
    @kompetop Рік тому +2

  • @Valelacerte
    @Valelacerte 11 років тому +4

    Yes, true. I noticed this with The Naked Sun. To be fair it was written in the 50's, but his prediction of media still being mechanically delivered on film and strips of paper when humans had colonised other planets and evolved for centuries was clearly the limits of his technological imagination. Ironic that he devised the positron brain and the three laws of robotics, but not entirely digital media. Still, it's a great book.

    • @Valelacerte
      @Valelacerte 4 роки тому

      @Miss Steele _"Baley took the plane and kept his eyes firmly on the news-strip that unreeled smoothly and continuously from the eye-level dispenser."_ ~ 1. A QUESTION IS ASKED, THE NAKED SUN.

    • @PC4USE1
      @PC4USE1 3 роки тому

      @@Valelacerte How could he have predicted digital technology in the 1950s,in the Univac age. Transistors were not even invented when "the Caves of Steel" was written. he merely extrapolated on known technology.

  • @D0S81
    @D0S81 3 роки тому +2

    i love the way he says robot
    robut

  • @TheUltimateGC
    @TheUltimateGC 10 років тому +3

    Beautiful.

  • @dexterousdiscourses7811
    @dexterousdiscourses7811 5 років тому +5

    “we have this device. it’s called a book”

  • @wiisalute
    @wiisalute 7 років тому +4

    I just started reading Foundation. it's interesting. Last year I read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time and that was really good, so I should like Foundation because I like sci-fi

  • @juanmshaw5617
    @juanmshaw5617 12 років тому +2

    My left ear likes the interview.

  • @christirichards
    @christirichards 4 роки тому +9

    I think he fell asleep during the introduction

  • @gerryboudreault9403
    @gerryboudreault9403 11 років тому +5

    Asimov collected jokes & humor; great book of it out there somewhere...

  • @qqbloodlover
    @qqbloodlover 11 років тому +4

    Can someone tell me about what story he is talking about at 17:16?

    • @gerryboudreault9403
      @gerryboudreault9403 11 років тому

      "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, early 19C. He named it twice, but not as a novel title.

  • @noxabellus
    @noxabellus 10 років тому +4

    Gosh, i hope that prediction was wrong...but...yeah...

  • @garrettaldenashley
    @garrettaldenashley 13 років тому +6

    old sci-fi esque music scares me :(

  • @rasputinandreievich7159
    @rasputinandreievich7159 9 років тому +17

    The interviewer kept interrupt him when he was building up to a point he wanted to express. It surprised me that Asimov didn't even seem annoyed at this, let alone that he didn't just bulldoze over the old fart.

    • @ironaan3565
      @ironaan3565 3 роки тому

      asimov has grown past ego is why

    • @01107345
      @01107345 3 роки тому

      because it's two grown ass men having a conversation. I know this comment's 5 years old but it annoys me enough to say something about it

  • @SomeOne-gu6pk
    @SomeOne-gu6pk 3 роки тому +1

    Азимов конечно был скала человек

  • @NeoAF10
    @NeoAF10 4 місяці тому

    Why do I find some resemblance between the interviewer and judge Frank Caprio? 🤔

  • @travisbickle2789
    @travisbickle2789 Рік тому

    Amazing

  • @myautobiographyafanfic1413
    @myautobiographyafanfic1413 9 років тому +3

    Was Zoidberg slightly based on Asimov and his Robits?

    • @hemiolaguy
      @hemiolaguy 11 місяців тому

      I'm sure the answer is yes!

  • @guilux666
    @guilux666 8 років тому +2

    Maybe tom hanks could do the part of the future !!! ... And Isaac Asimov is A god by the way !!!

  • @Ferrari312pb
    @Ferrari312pb 12 років тому

    He still appears fairly regularly on Channel 4 racing.

  • @unkleskratch
    @unkleskratch 2 роки тому +1

    An object lesson in what makes a bad interviewer- he cuts in, fusses about in his chair (on mike) mutters and 'uh-huhs' over the answers-Asimov is still Asimov though.

  • @willianBYOB
    @willianBYOB 12 років тому +1

    Translate to PT-BR please.

  • @flaggerify
    @flaggerify Рік тому

    Is this really '75? He looks much younger than the Letterman interview.

  • @herbzrgreen
    @herbzrgreen 3 роки тому

    🙏🔥💚 thank you

  • @WilliamZeebub
    @WilliamZeebub 9 років тому

    hello ..tune in

  • @DominusNovemus
    @DominusNovemus 9 років тому +3

    Interviewer looks tall af

  • @alchemistfightinggunupstv5991
    @alchemistfightinggunupstv5991 5 років тому +3

    Isaac asimov is fantastic
    wonder what jk Rowling feels about that

  • @noxabellus
    @noxabellus 10 років тому +10

    Robits

  • @thefakenewsnetwork8072
    @thefakenewsnetwork8072 3 роки тому +1

    Long live communism and freedom

  • @peterkerruish8136
    @peterkerruish8136 4 роки тому

    What happened to the fucking volume???!!!

  • @Karma-fp7ho
    @Karma-fp7ho Рік тому +1

    Not much talk about the three laws these days- as we roll out killer drones etc

  • @ViniciusRochaMida5
    @ViniciusRochaMida5 11 років тому

    Exactly!

  • @escapeplan2944
    @escapeplan2944 2 роки тому

    Epic

  • @justme0652
    @justme0652 2 роки тому

    Juan OSavin sent me

  • @kubrickselfies8849
    @kubrickselfies8849 8 років тому +1

    looks like Tom Hanks

  • @consis
    @consis 3 роки тому

    2 years before his first heart attack

  • @wareyhattdejanvye297
    @wareyhattdejanvye297 8 років тому +2

    the God's themselves

  • @kompetop
    @kompetop Рік тому +1

    ромолос

  • @СерикБекболсын
    @СерикБекболсын 4 роки тому

    Would you further live in ussr, .....

  • @nvcn86
    @nvcn86 11 років тому +1

    hey now, erica, you'd need to buy me dinner first.

    • @eysank
      @eysank 5 років тому

      My god, your account was created in 2006?! How cool is that!!

  • @AlgeKalipso
    @AlgeKalipso 12 років тому +1

    Hahaha! Yes, specially when he is being introduced XD

    • @iceiceisaac
      @iceiceisaac 3 роки тому

      Lmao he was so over that intro 🤣😂

  • @calvinlotz
    @calvinlotz 12 років тому +2

    Interviewer insults him with the Fantastic Voyage question, then asks follow up questions. Asimov lets him down easy.

    • @IsaacAsimov1992
      @IsaacAsimov1992 5 років тому

      +calvinlotz
      Shoes the class of the man (Isaac).

    • @sandal_thong
      @sandal_thong Рік тому

      Well, he wrote the book based on the screenplay instead of the other way around. Good to know.

  • @TerryUniGeezerPeterson
    @TerryUniGeezerPeterson 3 роки тому

    Those have to he the stupidest, most uncomfortable chairs ever!

    • @sandal_thong
      @sandal_thong Рік тому

      I've seen some worse, where the participants sit on stools with their feet not touching the stage.

  • @cptorangutang2
    @cptorangutang2 13 років тому

    He looks so high.. or immensely unimpressed.

  • @kevgh3869
    @kevgh3869 4 роки тому +1

    Rowbutt.

  • @SFJohnCross
    @SFJohnCross 9 років тому

    Who is Sy Bourgin, anyone know? I tried Googling him but all that popped up was this interview

    • @jeremymunnings940
      @jeremymunnings940 9 років тому +3

      +John Siebelink It's Simon Bourgin. The description has it wrong.

  • @htdart
    @htdart 4 роки тому +3

    Asimov was a genius, but most of his interviewers were definitely not. "The machines we create are going to be Frankensteins" is an incredibly ignorant phrase.

    • @sandal_thong
      @sandal_thong Рік тому

      At a time when A.I. is of concern, we could do well to revisit or look at the potential dangers.

  • @jackgallegos7495
    @jackgallegos7495 11 років тому +6

    Is it just me or is Bourgin trying (and failing) to insult him with most every word?

  • @wonsz9174
    @wonsz9174 9 років тому

    Sorry ale muszę
    Izak Asiimov xd

  • @nvcn86
    @nvcn86 12 років тому +1

    Prof Asimov, not Mr.

  • @CesarSalgadoA
    @CesarSalgadoA 12 років тому +4

    was he falling asleep? LOL

  • @musikSkool
    @musikSkool Рік тому

    Our science and technology are stagnating. The only thing we are making any progress in is smaller computers. We are not sending millions of people to live in space. We are living in the internet and staring at our phones. I hate to say it, but my prediction for 50 years from now is more novel ways to stare at screens and get nothing done. More games. More videos. Maybe more 3D stuff, maybe some kind of new way to have augmented/virtual reality with digital spaces that is different and newer than what we currently have, who knows. (I doubt everyone will do that, but it might get really popular in some places.) But we most certainty won't have 1 million people living, working, and having children in space. We will be staring at screens 15 hours a day, and I honestly believe we will believe we are smarter, but we will be less capable of doing physical tasks than the last 3 generations. We KNOW of more advanced technology, but if I asked you to MAKE me a cellphone, you would stare at me blankly, as if actually making a cellphone was somehow less useful than finding something interesting to point a camera at and uploading a video of it. Nope. Actually making the phone will only be possible for a handful of people. Even those people in factories, in assembly lines, "making phones". None of them know how to make a processor. All that is stored on some usb stick, or in some computer, connected to some multi-billion dollar machine that spits out a thousand advanced chips a day and only a couple dozen people in the whole world even know how to design a chip. We are not progressing science. Only a tiny amount of people are making any progress, and you and me are not the ones doing it. We are sitting down, as a species. We have given up. Now go find another video to watch... Don't go outside, or anything. Don't make anything new. Or, well, make a new video, so that a million other people can sit and watch it, instead of doing anything original themselves. I know I will.

    • @sandal_thong
      @sandal_thong Рік тому

      Going to space is incredibly expensive and rather dangerous. We lost two Space Shuttles and their crews in over 100 missions, making the failure rate 1/50 or so.
      The task for us (or generations coming of age) is to create a sustainable global society. He said that in 25 years (2000) if we weren't on our way to solve the current problems (of 1975) then we'd be in trouble. We've put off solving so many problems that things have only gotten worse. So many grownups were still angry about globalization in the 1990s that they were manipulated by lies on social media, voted "Leave" in Brexit, and stood by and let far-right would-be dictators take over in several countries.

    • @musikSkool
      @musikSkool Рік тому +1

      @@sandal_thong I agree. Technology isn't necessarily the solution to problems, actually working on them would. Cavemen would be better at solving pollution than us.

    • @sandal_thong
      @sandal_thong Рік тому

      @@musikSkool Interesting. Perhaps there was a time before we adopted a follow-the-leader mentality and were cooperative? Also, I've felt for awhile doing what rich people want or suggest just prevents progress and keeps a lot of people poor.

  • @YoLninYo
    @YoLninYo 13 років тому

    can't hear... so annoying...

  • @myautobiographyafanfic1413
    @myautobiographyafanfic1413 9 років тому

    Chinese Scifi is quite popular; but unpalatable in my opinion. too surreal and insubstantial.

    • @reinforcedpenisstem
      @reinforcedpenisstem 8 років тому

      +My Autobiography A Fanfic And when you finish the book, you need to read another one in an hour.

    • @hemiolaguy
      @hemiolaguy 11 місяців тому

      @@reinforcedpenisstem LOL!

  • @genedesigner
    @genedesigner 12 років тому

    retrofuturism

  • @travisbickle2789
    @travisbickle2789 Рік тому

    Amazing