...Isaac Asimov (born Isaac Yudovich Ozimov, ; c. January 2, 1920 – April 6, 1992), was a Russian American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited about 500 books and over 9,000 letters and postcards. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (the sole exception being the 100s: philosophy and psychology). Read full entry
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- 1.Isaac Asimov Home Page
- FAQ, news, history, biography, and links.
- http://www.asimovonline.com/
- 2.Isaac Asimov - Wikipedia
- Biography of the legendary science fiction and science writer whose works included The Foundation series, The Gods Themselves, and I, Robot.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I
saac_Asimov
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What is the name of the short What is the name of the short
story by Isaac Asimov about a
post apocalyptic automated
house? The story tells of an
automated house running like
clock work even though there
is no longer anyone alive to
be working for. In the end the
house burns down and can't
save itself because it wasted
all the resources on feeding a
family that was already dead.
Anyone know what the name of
the story is?
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"There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T here_Will_Come_Soft_Rains_(sho rt_story) "Set in August 4, 2026 in the city of Allendale, California, There Will Come Soft Rains details the daily tasks of a robotic house after its inhabitants (Mr and Mrs McClellan and their son and daughter) have died in a nuclear war. The house is still undamaged, fully automated and sensitive to its owners and their requests and needs. It continues to serve the dead family, unaware of their absence, though aware of other external and internal disruptions such as the weather and birds attempting to land on it. Throughout the story, the house makes breakfast, disposes of it uneaten, and performs various domestic tasks. The house communicates via a set of recorded and synthesized voices, starting a morning wakeup call at 7:00 AM and at 7:15 it announces the date 3 times in the kitchen. The title comes from Sara Teasdale's poem, There Will Come Soft Rains which is selected and recited by the audio system of the house to entertain the already nonexisting Mrs McClellan at 9:05 PM in the study. The poem talks about the extinction of mankind, thus giving a dramatic power to the actual events of the story. Only one living thing makes an appearance in the story: the family dog, which had been slowly dying from radiation poisoning. It makes its way back to the house only to die; its corpse is then swiftly removed by the house's automated cleaning robots. The author at one point mentions the family's silhouettes which were permanently burned onto the side of the house (as seen at Hiroshima) when they were vaporized by the fireball flash of the atomic blast. In the end, the house catches on fire when a tree branch falls through a window and smashes into bottled cleaning solvents, which shatter and spill onto the stove. Though the house attempts to save itself with water and chemical extinguishers, its years of meaningless service have left it understocked for emergencies and it quickly succumbs to the blaze. As another day dawns, the house has been reduced to a smoking pile of rubble. Only one wall remains standing and as its built-in sensors detect the sunbeams, the last and lone recorded voice keeps tolling out the new day's date over and over again." |
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How can I get a good hook I have to write a paper on
Isaac Asimov and Jules Verne.
I have all of the research
that I need. The problem is,
my teacher has 65 papers to
grade, and she told us herself
that she gets bored, and that
sometimes she grades a paper
entirely based on the grabber,
or hook sentence. What do you
recommend?
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A technique I used a long time ago under pretty much the same conditions (just different authors) was to have one of the authors speak directly to the other about their work or about some common ground they might have. Since yours are not contemporaries, the anachronism could catch your teacher's eye and brain. A friend had one of his authors speak from within the other author's story. Or you could weave elements of one or more of each author's titles into a single title and then segue into a statment about it. There are lots of possibilities, and surely many will come your way...the fact that you are well-prepared and really want to get your teacher's interest is encouraging. Controversy could work, too. Perhaps Asimov is the reincarnation of Verne and can be more prolific because he has the advantages of modern technologies (like the electric typewriter!!) and his earlier body of work plus everything that has happened since his first death. Okay, good luck. Put those brain juices to work. You can do it. Now, as an aside, it seems highly unfair of that teacher to grade so heavily on such a small part of the work. It could be unfair to you in that it would ignore your serious, well-crafted efforts. It could be unfair to the teacher and to other students in that someone could get a good grade on nothing more than the hook and still have written the rest of the paper poorly or with minimal effort. Granted, that would be risky, but..... |
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In what collection can I find I once read an essay by Isaac
Asimov (at least I'm pretty
sure it was by him) telling
why we can't go faster than
the speed of light because of
causality/cause and effect. He
wrote so many books that are
now out-of-print that I'm
having trouble locating it
again. Does anyone know the
essay I'm referring to and
where it can be found?
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Try Asimov's New Guide to Science. In it he talks about everything including how the Lorentz - FitzGerald equations make FTL travel impossible and how Einstein used those equations to show that E=mc^2. If not what you are looking for, it is still a great book for science students. . . |
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