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schuyler
It would be tedious to go through the original article and judge everything Asimov said, but this Buzzfed article has a built in bias. It says, "This is where he got it right." If you just read Buzzfeed, it sounds like he's batting 100%. But read the original article, which appears to have been sponsored by General Electric, to get a sense of what he got wrong as well as the lifting of context of what he really did say. Here's an example:
One thought that occurs to me is that men will continue to withdraw from nature in order to create an environment that will suit them better. By 2014, electroluminescent panels will be in common use. Ceilings and walls will glow softly, and in a variety of colors that will change at the touch of a push button.
Windows need be no more than an archaic touch, and even when present will be polarized to block out the harsh sunlight. The degree of opacity of the glass may even be made to alter automatically in accordance with the intensity of the light falling upon it.
This is shown as a “win” in the post. Sorry, but by and large what Asimov said has not happened. In the same vein he also said this:
There is an underground house at the fair which is a sign of the future. if its windows are not polarized, they can nevertheless alter the "scenery" by changes in lighting. Suburban houses underground, with easily controlled temperature, free from the vicissitudes of weather, with air cleaned and light controlled, should be fairly common.
Seriously? Bzzt. Another failure. He also said not only that appliances would have no electric cords (By and large they do), but also that they would be powered by "radioisotope" batteries, i.e.: Atomic power. This was actually counted as a "win," because someone found some appliances without cords. But in context, it is completely off-base. He guessed solar power farms correctly, but combined it with fusion power and vast solar arrays in space, neither of which have happened.
To Asimov moon colonies were a given by 2014 as well as underwater cities. He nailed laser beam communications, but suggested the lasers would be encased in plastic pipes. His cars traveled on compressed air leaving bridges obsolete, though said vehicles had robot brains, which is nearing the truth. He had moving sidewalks, too, but we've had those since the sixties and they are common in airports today. Down the city streets? Not so much. And there's no doubt he nailed the population issues.
But the point here is that though Asimov deserved his genius label, his prognostications about the future weren't much better than 50/50 and doused with a sense of optimism, at least about technology, that has not proven true. Many of the things he "predicted" actually existed already in 1964, as has been pointed out earlier. Buzzfeed gives a false impression here that isn't realistic either by ignoring his misses and taking his sentences out of context to make them appear better than they actually were, and in that sense I think it does Asimov a disservice.
edit on 1/2/2014 by schuyler because: (no reason given)
My phone is not on my wrist it's in my purse but still.
NowanKenubi
reply to post by mikegrouchy
How cool! So, how do noses work? Mine sits lazily in my face... lol
At the top of your nasal passages behind your nose, there is a patch of special neurons about the size of a postage stamp. These neurons are unique in that they are out in the open where they can come into contact with the air. They have hair-like projections called cilia that increase their surface area. An odor molecule binds to these cilia to trigger the neuron and cause you to perceive a smell.
www.howstuffworks.com / noses
SonoftheSun
reply to post by mikegrouchy
Very Very cool !!
Interesting to see that he took the time to answer back ! Nice !!
Well, what do you expect from the guy? That was his job. He was paid to sit around and look at stuff and imagine what they would be like in the future and how they would be integrated into society, and then write about it.
Of all the possible futures ahead of us for the rest of the century most of them encompass the destruction of the United States of America as the political entity we know and with the death of at least fifty to sixty million of her citizens.
... if we wait long enough and avoid war, the Russian people themselves ... will rise up, throw off their oppressors -- and save us the headaches.