Isaac Asimov: The galactic enciclopedic

At a time when science and technology seem to answer the biggest mysteries of Being and the Universe, we can trust and a little to our understanding, despite knowing limited and partial. We note that scientists have been massing domains thanks to the immense development of the schools and the media. No doubt, now we is not that difficult to corroborate the amazing vislumbrares designed by some great men many years ago.

Still, if understanding could conduct himself, we should not confine ourselves to learn from books, but also have to know things. Few men able to lift and carry forward the flag that unites all nations and knowledge on behalf of humanity. It is in this context that stands the figure of Isaac Asimov, probably the writer of literature in advance and science writer highlights of a century before us and was like foam hands.

A prodigious SCIENTIST

For purely legal issues, it is considered that Isaac Asimov was born on January 2, 1920 in Petrovichi (now Belarus), as the oldest of three brothers, was followed by his sister Marcia and her brother Stanley. Jewish-Russian parents, Anna Rachel Berman Asimov and Judah, origin migrated to New York in January 1923, when the future writer they had only three calendars. During his childhood, in the Brooklyn borough, little Isaac learns to read for yourself the five Januarys. It divided between studies and work in the various sweet shops rented his father was just in some of those shelves crammed with magazines that the young Asimov first met with the scientific and speculative fiction. By mid-adolescence, write their own stories, which began publishing in magazines-now classic-called "pulps" at age 19.

Asimov began devouring the above with real passion magazines, without suspecting that, over the years, some of them would go out in front leading his own name.Such a huge intellectual precocity of his appetite for reading was not the first symptom, encouraged parents to provide early schooling: to that end, his mother falsified birth date to allow admission in 1925 to a public school in New York. Then completed his secondary education in East New York Junior High School, where he graduated in 1930, and then went to Boys High School, where he remained until 1935-the year in which, once completed with excellence undergraduate studies, is He found ready to undertake their higher education with only fifteen Aprils.

Registered in New York's Columbia University (1935), four years after Asimov had already achieved a degree in Biochemistry. Subsequent studies allowed to obtain a Master of Science and Arts, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Against the wishes of his parents, who hoped would be devoted to the practice of medicine, Isaac decided that his professional future necessarily meant the cultivation of the literary arts.

Because a particular fear of flying, the author flew only twice in his life. This made him think he could suffer from acrophobia. Also, I was convinced of having claustrofilia-ie he liked the small, enclosed places.

Asimov married Gertrude first marriage Blugerman (1942). It had two children: David born in 1951 - and 1955-Robyn -. Gertrude was removed in 1970 to marry three years later, Janet Opal Jeppson, of which I had no children. Started nineties, following surgery prompted by a severe prostate condition, Isaac Asimov was forced to reduce its intense creative and research activities. Death came to him in New York in early spring 1992.

INDEFATIGABLE WRITER

The thought of Isaac Asimov was 100% rationalist and humanist. Although he never opposed the sincere religious beliefs of others, faced with courage to superstitions and unfounded beliefs. Based on the hundreds of science books, Asimov always believed in progress based on rational use of science and technology. The author was a progressive on policy issues and a staunch supporter of the U.S. Democratic Party.

During the last years of the fifties and well into the sixties, production dropped considerably Asimov fiction, reorienting themselves to the test. Between The Naked Sun (1957) and The Limits Of The Foundation (1982), published only four novels, two of which are mysterious. In this same period increased largely literary production in other disciplines, writing mostly about science. The popularity of his first major work, The Guide of Science For The Intelligent Man, also allowed him to part with much of their academic responsibilities and become a full time writer.

As the reader may guess, Asimov was very serious about the craft of writing. Worked 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, in a tireless manner. No resting any holiday or weekends, and his schedule was unchanged. His average was staggering: 90 words per minute 35 pages per day, about 10 books per year ... In life, Asimov published for young readers and adults over 500 books, which, in addition to science fiction and popular science; cover themes of mystery, humor, history and even several volumes on William Shakespeare and the Bible. On the latter, the writer published Asimov's Guide To The Bible in two volumes comprising the Old Testament (1967) and the New Testament (1969), and eventually merged into a single volume of 1300 pages (1981). Filled with maps and tables, this guide leads the reader through the books of the Bible in order, explaining the history of each one and the political influences that had affected them (as well as biographical information on the most relevant characters).

The wide range of information covering Asimov's writings led to the American author Kurt Vonnegut once to ask: "how do you feel knowing everything?". Asimov replied that he only knew how it felt to have that reputation of knowing.

AFTER THE CONQUEST OF THE GALAXY

Among his works of literature in advance, best known belong to Trantor Cycle or the Foundation series. The Original Trilogy - Foundation, Foundation And Empireand Second Foundation - received the Hugo Award for best science fiction series of all time. Then drafted Limits Of Foundation and Foundation and Earth, which are based on the events of Second Foundation. In Foundation and Earth, Asimov's Foundation series connects with his novels of robots, to introduce one of his best-known characters: Daneel Olivaw. The above stories stand out as the detective type, so it is considered a pioneer of science fiction detective. In these novels(The Domes Of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots Of Dawn, Robots And Empire),Asimov creates another major characters: Elijah Baley. In Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation Asimov reveals the origins of "psychohistory" (science to predict the future behavior of the masses), creating a high Hari Seldon. These two narrative works also serve as a link between the novels and the Foundation robots, introducing the meeting and Hari Seldon Daneel.

Subsequently, E Empire Robots, a robot develops what is called the "Zeroth Law of Robotics" which states that a robot may not injure humanity, or through inaction allow it compromised. It also decides that robotic presence is stifling freedom of mankind, so the best course of action is self-induced disappearance of robots. A story outside the theme of these mechanical beings, The End of Eternity, shows a similar conflict and an identical resolution.

In the Foundation series, which originally had no robots, the character Hari Seldon developed psychohistory, through which an empire after 1000 years could be created. This series has its own reading of the Guardians of the Republic of Plato, in the book Second Foundation, who improve and protect the plan. When Asimov finished writing the series in the fifties, the Second Foundation was presented as a protector of humanity. When, in the eighties, revisits the series, gives an even more explicit theme patronizing tone.

In The Limits Foundation, Asimov introduced the planet Gaia, obviously based on the "Gaia Hypothesis" English meteorologist James Lovelock. Every animal, plant and mineral Gaia part of a common consciousness, forming a super-mind working partner for the general good. At the end of this story, the protagonist Golan Trevize must decide whether or not to allow the development of Galaxy, a larger version of Gaia, which would cover the entire Universe. In addition, the robots are definitely enter in the universe of the Foundation.

In their accounts of androids, collected in I, Robot (1950) and The Second Book of Robots (1964), set Asimov's three laws of robotics, which put the robot to the total service of man. Although sometimes they seem to rape, just discovering that this happens for the sake of a higher interest of humanity. But while robots evolve into a humanoid model of intelligence and moral clarity superior to humans themselves, these, driven by their selfish impulses, incubated a deep hostility towards them. Moreover, Foundation And Earth is where the first series robots that interact with the characters appear. And subsequent prequel, Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, explore their behavior in more detail. Robots have proven to be hidden benefactors of mankind.

THE GRAND MASTER Nebula

Isaac Asimov's novels-usually more satisfying than its numerous stories, have a style often without relief, based almost exclusively on dialogue, and dedicated to serving little more than a vehicle for the author's thesis. But in this tissue of ideas is also its strength, and the pace of writing gets almost always involve the reader in an exciting crescendo, proposing a tireless-questions-infinite on Man argument and the intricate way in which attempts program your own future.

It has been said several times that the concise and limited Asimov style was to a great mind that most of his readings were pulp magazines such as they were also for their stories. These activities require sacrificing way of saying something: to be understood in a short space of matter in question, conciseness by force should influence the style. A peculiar example is Carl Sagan: having, as a popularizer, a better and more elegant literary style as Isaac Asimov, sometimes some of his books are much more difficult to understand than the latter, and, therefore, post more minority, although sales of his books do not seem to endorse this theory.

In 1981, as a gesture of admiration, "Asimov" was named the asteroid 5020. It would not be that the only tribute dedicated to Jewish-American of Russian ancestry. The Honda humanoid robot ASIMO is called, in reference to Isaac pristine (although Honda has denied repeatedly wink). Similarly, Asimov earned the distinction of 'Grand Master Nebula' in 1986. It is, surely, the science fiction author best known for mainstream audiences, including one that moves beyond the scope of fans of the genre. Its simple and without complications literary style makes it very affordable, and although some critics branded as insubstantial basis of his work in that circumstance certainly is the clearest representative of the classic science-fiction literature understood as a source of new ideas.

Here, then, a modest handbook that leader of this brave man, who hoisted a banner that still represents the major foundations of human wisdom. A man who could put aside the tangled and abstruse of contemporary epistemology, to bring it closer to both the scholar and the inexperienced reader.

Jorge Antonio Buckingham