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The road to infinity
- GenresScienceNonfiction
217 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1979
155 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,472 books27.4k followersWorks of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles,
The Foundation Trilogy
(1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.
Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).
People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.
Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.
Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 1, 2014
The way asimov is able to explain intermediate and complex science, is as if he is sitting in the room with you explaining it. My advice would be to read slowly and truly let the information sink and, while simultaneously allowing your mind to envision & imagine the examples.
May 28, 2022
I have read a lot of Asimov and still have not read it all. Here is one of his book of essays on science, mostly. He was a great popularizer whose explanations still hold.
Sure, science can change but that is obvious in how he wrote. He tried to get show a history of science in each essay. It leaves you with the feeling that there could be more to the story moving on from here.
His casual sexism and humanity both shine through. Those throw away lines which were intended to be humorous lead me to his wiki page. I wanted to know if more came about from this. There are insinuations but nothing more. What I did find interesting was that he had HIV which he hid from his family. Somehow, this makes his prose make more sense. I see pragmatics and attempts at humanizing a man with a huge intellect that was striving to appeal to a wide audience.
Maybe I am too in awe of his other stuff to admit he was basically a dirty old man by the end of his time or maybe without a preponderance of evidence, I suspect he was human and flawed.
Regardless, if you ignore the bits that give you pause, the science and its explanations are sound up until this day and offer places for you to go.
Sure, science can change but that is obvious in how he wrote. He tried to get show a history of science in each essay. It leaves you with the feeling that there could be more to the story moving on from here.
His casual sexism and humanity both shine through. Those throw away lines which were intended to be humorous lead me to his wiki page. I wanted to know if more came about from this. There are insinuations but nothing more. What I did find interesting was that he had HIV which he hid from his family. Somehow, this makes his prose make more sense. I see pragmatics and attempts at humanizing a man with a huge intellect that was striving to appeal to a wide audience.
Maybe I am too in awe of his other stuff to admit he was basically a dirty old man by the end of his time or maybe without a preponderance of evidence, I suspect he was human and flawed.
Regardless, if you ignore the bits that give you pause, the science and its explanations are sound up until this day and offer places for you to go.
July 31, 2022
“The molecules of my body, after my conception, added other molecules and arranged the whole into more and more complex form […]. In the process, I developed, little by little, into a conscious something I call ‘I’ that exists only as the arrangement. When the arrangement is lost forever, as it will be when I die, the ‘I’ will be lost forever, too. And that suits me fine. No concept I have ever heard of either a Hell or of a Heaven, has seemed to me to be suitable for a civilized rational mind to inhabit, and I would rather have the nothingness.”
June 28, 2017
F&SF columns '76-'77. Mostly fun, though he gets a bit too bogged down with numbers at times.
Read
February 28, 2018Excellent autobiography-in-progress (returned to public street library upon completion)
dates approximate
dates approximate
July 23, 2015
Isaac Asimov had such a talent for explaining things. I read this in hopes of understanding Cantor's levels of infinity; instead, there was a marvelous explanation of logarithms. And on absolute zero.
I cannot say I gained any knowledge of infinity from this, but I learned several other things instead. Glad I read this!
I cannot say I gained any knowledge of infinity from this, but I learned several other things instead. Glad I read this!
November 17, 2008
Loved it! Asimov is pure genius... and has a great sense of humor too!
June 22, 2011
the best book I have EVER read this was the prelude to my experience to science-fiction which i have never veered from
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews