Today we will talk about the legendary humanist and popularizer of science Isaac Asimov and the equally famous programmer, physicist and very non-trivial author - Neil Stevenson.
Bill Gates admitted that most of all he appreciates in science fiction novels both the opportunity to plunge into them with his head, and the thoughts they inspire - after all, it is quite possible to learn something from individual authors. As an example, the entrepreneur cited Neil Stevenson's book "Semievie", which talked about the consequences of the explosion of the moon. The writer was able to reliably portray the disaster thanks to an in-depth study of geography and physics - he has a degree in these disciplines.
A couple of Stevenson in the new issue of the heading "science fiction" will be the classic of science fiction, popularizer of science, humanist, biochemist, author of research papers and member of the Big Three of American Science Fiction Isaac Asimov. Let us recall what disciplines the writers studied, what they managed to achieve in their chosen specialty and how their field helped in the work on fantastic works.
Isaac Asimov
Specialization: biochemistry.
Asimov is an outstanding writer whose influence on science and science fiction can be described in a meticulous study of several hundred pages. And even in this case, there is a great chance not to cover all the details from the life and work of a science fiction writer. In the same note, we will touch on some of the main topics and try to track patterns in his works.
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Due to the technical richness of the novels and stories of the writer, one might get the impression that Isaac Asimov was an engineer, but in fact this is not so - he first became a bachelor's and then a master's in chemistry. He entered graduate school, but in 1942 Azimov went to Philadelphia to the naval shipyard, where he worked as a chemist for three years. Until 1946, he served in the army - and only after that he managed to complete his postgraduate studies, where he received a doctorate in biochemistry. Later, the writer got a job as a teacher at the Faculty of Medicine at Boston University, continuing his career as a scientist - so he became an assistant professor.
In his youth, Azimov wanted to become a physician - probably this was a consequence of his humanistic outlook. However, he soon realized that being a doctor was not for him - the writer felt bad at the sight of blood.
The writer's works, especially later ones, largely reflect his mindset, numerous studies, rich experience in working on popular science works and the already mentioned humanistic worldview. The latter is especially clearly seen in the elaboration of the images of robots in the collection "I, Robot", with which Azimov finally approved the title characters not as a thoughtless force that wants to destroy humanity, but as intelligent creatures with their own logic and motives. Asimov's robots help people, sometimes they even serve as moral guidelines. But in many ways, for the appearance of robots in the writer's works, one should thank the editor of Astounding magazine John W. Campbell, who rejected the first stories of young Asimov. At the dawn of creativity, it was Campbell who gave Asimov advice to throw out any aliens, since the editor believed that the "aliens" were no match for people. Probably,therefore, the universe of "Academy" - one of the most famous and large-scale works of Asimov - is inhabited exclusively by people.
The writer is credited with introducing the term robotics into the English language, which later became firmly rooted in scientific circles. In addition, Asimov is considered the author of three legendary laws of robotics, which, probably, any fan of science fiction has heard about.
- A robot cannot harm a person or, by its inaction, allow a person to be harmed.
- A robot must obey all orders given by a human, except when these orders are contrary to the First Law.
- The robot must take care of its safety to the extent that it does not contradict the First or Second Laws.
But the writer himself rejected authorship - he argued that the formulations appeared thanks to John Campbell. However, the editor explained that he simply brought them out based on the work of Azimov, nothing more.
The writer's journalistic works are worth a separate mention - at some point he focused on non-fiction, because it was easier for them to make money. Azimov went deep into the popularization of science and rational thinking, he published dozens of books in a variety of scientific fields: from teenage literature on space exploration and astronautics to works on biochemistry and textbooks of elementary physics. It is not surprising that rationality and fundamentality eventually became one of the key themes in his works of art.
Say, mathematician Gary Saldon, in his Academy series, turns to the science of psychohistory to analyze the likely future events that await the Galactic Empire. He predicts that the space state will decline and die over the next five hundred years, and this process cannot be stopped - the Empire will fall for thirty thousand years during a period of barbarism. With the cold prudence of a true scientist, Seldon begins to prepare his followers, who will have to preserve the knowledge and other heritage of humanity in the Galactic Encyclopedia.
However, the actions of Seldon and his followers, even with their cosmic scale, seem like a child's fuss in the sandbox against the backdrop of the Eternity organization. Local mathematicians have learned to calculate probabilities in a time stream, which allows not only to see the future of the planet for many thousands and tens of thousands of years, but also to correct it by traveling in time. Rationally and without feeling any regrets, the Eternals change the flow of time over and over again, eliminating military conflicts, man-made disasters, epidemics and similar shocks from the chronology.
Neil Stevenson
Specialization: geography, physics.
Stevenson is widely regarded as one of the most serious modern science fiction authors, whose books are consulted for fundamental presentation and technical accuracy. In his works, he delves deeply into the issues of social technology, mathematics, cryptography, history, linguistics, philosophy and finance. It's no surprise that with such a wealth of experience and mindset, Stevenson spent several years as a consultant for Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' private aerospace company, Blue Origin!
And it all started with the fact that the future writer was born into a family of scientists - his father was a professor of electrical engineering, and his mother worked in a biochemical laboratory. Initially, Stevenson studied physics, but then moved to the geographical department, explaining his act not so much by preferences as by the fact that "computers are cooler there." He quickly established himself as an excellent programmer and later became a regular technology contributor for Wired.
The most famous works of Stevenson can be attributed to cyberpunk or its heir - postcyberpunk. For example, in the same "Avalanche", the writer summarized all the key elements of the genre, such as a detailed description of virtual reality, and to some extent even predicted social networks - although it is precisely he who does not set himself the goal of just predicting the options for the future. Stevenson is much more interested in taking some interesting concept (like Enigma in Cryptonomicon or collecting local currency in MMORPG in ReadMe Virus), disassemble it, study it and rethink it - and then give it to the reader to immerse himself in an interesting topic.
“I love technology. I love computers. I love science. So I mostly talk to scientists and hackers."
Perhaps, this phrase contains the whole secret of the author's success - his passion for technology allows the writer to confidently work with advanced ideas. At the same time, the "father of cyberpunk" William Gibson admitted that at first he came up with all the described technological innovations from his head, but he never saw a computer in his eyes - he wrote novels on a typewriter! Moreover, Stevenson, in principle, prefers not to read science fiction - allegedly this prevents him from writing novels himself, because he relies solely on his ideas about what and how it works.
For example, in one of his interviews, he reflected on the differences between virtual reality (VR) devices and augmented reality (AR) devices using the example of Avalanche.
I think that these options differ from each other much more than many people realize. You look at someone with a VR device on their head and someone with an AR device on their head - and they kind of look the same. But what they experience and see is radically different. If you're in virtual reality, every photo you see is created from scratch with a computer graphics system. If you are in augmented reality, you are where you are. You are in your usual environment, you see everything around, as usual, but additional elements appear.
So VR can take you to a completely different, fictional place - the one described in the Avalanche Metaverse. When you are in the Metaverse, you are on the street, you are in the Black Sun, and your environment disappears. In the book, Hiro lives in a container, but when he enters the Metaverse, he is a serious player and has access to very expensive items. AR is about something completely different.
Like Asimov, Stevenson is a multifaceted author, having addressed in his books a variety of topics - from the rise of science and cryptography to nanotechnology (before it became fashionable!) And many-worlds interpretation. And one of his most sensational novels, Semievie, tells about a grand catastrophe - the explosion of the moon. Unfortunately, after this, our planet will have to perish in a meteor shower, and only a handful of a select few who will someday have to repopulate the Earth can escape in space. To such a large-scale almost-scientific-end-of-the-world, the writer adds his favorite conflict of politicians and technocrats - and the result is an excellent story about the death and salvation of the homeland of mankind, written with scrupulous accuracy. In general, everything for which we love Stevenson.
Alexander Strepetilov
