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The Dead Past
"The Dead Past" is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, first published in the April 1956 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was later collected in Earth Is Room Enough (1957) and The Best of Isaac Asimov (1973), and adapted into an episode of the science-fiction television series Out of the Unknown. Its pattern is that of dystopian fiction, but of a subtly nuanced flavour. It is considered by some people to be one of his best short stories
60 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
9 people are currently reading
500 people want to read
About the author
Isaac Asimov
4,341 books27.9k 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 - 30 of 50 reviews
May 19, 2019
OCD-inducing writing, as always. Still, lovely plot.
Q:
"You have created a new world among the three of you. I congratulate you. Happy goldfish bowl to you, to me, to everyone, and may each of you fry in hell forever. Arrest rescinded." (c)
Q:
"I suppose there's no way of putting the mushroom cloud back into that nice, shiny uranium sphere." (c)
Q:
Arnold Potterley, Ph.D., was a Professor of Ancient History. That, in itself, was not dangerous. What changed the world beyond all dreams was the fact that he looked like a Professor of Ancient History. (c)
Q:
To know Carthage would be very rewarding, yet the only knowledge we have of it is derived from the writings of its bitter enemies, the Greeks and Romans. Carthage itself never wrote in its own defense or, if it did, the books did not survive. As a result, the Carthaginians have been one of the favorite sets of villains of history and perhaps unjustly so. Time viewing may set the record straight. (c)
Q:
To deny the importance of someone's research problem would be unforgivably bad manners. (c)
Q:
Service through negation.
At least this fellow had been easy to dispose of. Sometimes academic pressure had to be applied and even withdrawal of grants. (c)
Q:
No one would advocate running a factory by allowing each individual worker to do whatever pleased him at the moment, or of running a ship according to the casual and conflicting notions of each individual crewman. It would be taken for granted that some sort of centralized supervisory agency must exist in each case. Why should direction and order benefit a factory and a ship but not scientific research? (c)
Q:
He stopped to think about that.
And that was ruin. (c)
Q:
A scientist shouldn't be too curious, he thought in bitter dissatisfaction with himself. It's a dangerous trait. (c)
Q:
In a way, he was secretly ashamed of Uncle Ralph. He hadn't mentioned him to Potterley partly out of caution and partly because he did not wish to witness the lifted eyebrow, the inevitable half-smile. Professional science writers, however useful, were a little outside the pale, fit only for patronizing contempt. The fact that, as a class, they made more money than did research scientists only made matters worse, of course.
Still, there were times when a science writer in the family could be a convenience. Not being really educated, they did not have to specialize. Consequently, a good science writer knew practically everything. . . . And Uncle Ralph was one of the best.
Ralph Nimmo had no college degree and was rather proud of it. "A degree," he once said to Jonas Foster, when both were considerably younger, "is a first step down a ruinous highway. You don't want to waste it so you go on to graduate work and doctoral research. You end up a thoroughgoing ignoramus on everything in the world except for one subdivisional sliver of nothing.
"On the other hand, if you guard your mind carefully and keep it blank of any clutter of information till maturity is reached, filling it only with intelligence and training it only in clear thinking, you then have a powerful instrument at your disposal and you can become a science writer." (c)
Q:
We'll have a whole world living in the past. Midsummer madness. (с)
Q:
Hang your principle. Can't you understand men and women as well as principle?...
The past has its terrors for most people. Don't loose those terrors on the human race. (c)
Q:
"You have created a new world among the three of you. I congratulate you. Happy goldfish bowl to you, to me, to everyone, and may each of you fry in hell forever. Arrest rescinded." (c)
Q:
"I suppose there's no way of putting the mushroom cloud back into that nice, shiny uranium sphere." (c)
Q:
Arnold Potterley, Ph.D., was a Professor of Ancient History. That, in itself, was not dangerous. What changed the world beyond all dreams was the fact that he looked like a Professor of Ancient History. (c)
Q:
To know Carthage would be very rewarding, yet the only knowledge we have of it is derived from the writings of its bitter enemies, the Greeks and Romans. Carthage itself never wrote in its own defense or, if it did, the books did not survive. As a result, the Carthaginians have been one of the favorite sets of villains of history and perhaps unjustly so. Time viewing may set the record straight. (c)
Q:
To deny the importance of someone's research problem would be unforgivably bad manners. (c)
Q:
Service through negation.
At least this fellow had been easy to dispose of. Sometimes academic pressure had to be applied and even withdrawal of grants. (c)
Q:
No one would advocate running a factory by allowing each individual worker to do whatever pleased him at the moment, or of running a ship according to the casual and conflicting notions of each individual crewman. It would be taken for granted that some sort of centralized supervisory agency must exist in each case. Why should direction and order benefit a factory and a ship but not scientific research? (c)
Q:
He stopped to think about that.
And that was ruin. (c)
Q:
A scientist shouldn't be too curious, he thought in bitter dissatisfaction with himself. It's a dangerous trait. (c)
Q:
In a way, he was secretly ashamed of Uncle Ralph. He hadn't mentioned him to Potterley partly out of caution and partly because he did not wish to witness the lifted eyebrow, the inevitable half-smile. Professional science writers, however useful, were a little outside the pale, fit only for patronizing contempt. The fact that, as a class, they made more money than did research scientists only made matters worse, of course.
Still, there were times when a science writer in the family could be a convenience. Not being really educated, they did not have to specialize. Consequently, a good science writer knew practically everything. . . . And Uncle Ralph was one of the best.
Ralph Nimmo had no college degree and was rather proud of it. "A degree," he once said to Jonas Foster, when both were considerably younger, "is a first step down a ruinous highway. You don't want to waste it so you go on to graduate work and doctoral research. You end up a thoroughgoing ignoramus on everything in the world except for one subdivisional sliver of nothing.
"On the other hand, if you guard your mind carefully and keep it blank of any clutter of information till maturity is reached, filling it only with intelligence and training it only in clear thinking, you then have a powerful instrument at your disposal and you can become a science writer." (c)
Q:
We'll have a whole world living in the past. Midsummer madness. (с)
Q:
Hang your principle. Can't you understand men and women as well as principle?...
The past has its terrors for most people. Don't loose those terrors on the human race. (c)
November 13, 2015
The Dead Past by Isaac Asimov is actually a novelette, not a short story. And it happens to be a thought provoking one. Like Foundation trilogy it's a character driven story.
Freedom to follow your curiosity in scientific research is the main thread around which the whole story revolves. The story is set in future, which is not dissimilar to ours, where scientific research is centralized and directed by a government agency. And there is a specialized branch of science, known as Chronoscopy, for which no research is allowed, and government makes sure no one learns more about this science - by keeping an eye over all on-going researches that can help or lead to know more about Chronoscopy, and therefore denying all the grants and funding for such researches. All in all this story poses certain serious questions about the ethical use of great inventions made possible by modern science & technology, in general. The plot is straight forward but opens layer by layer, and moves with a descent pace and ends with an unprecedented twist, making it an interesting, and quite enlightening read!
Recommended!
Freedom to follow your curiosity in scientific research is the main thread around which the whole story revolves. The story is set in future, which is not dissimilar to ours, where scientific research is centralized and directed by a government agency. And there is a specialized branch of science, known as Chronoscopy, for which no research is allowed, and government makes sure no one learns more about this science - by keeping an eye over all on-going researches that can help or lead to know more about Chronoscopy, and therefore denying all the grants and funding for such researches. All in all this story poses certain serious questions about the ethical use of great inventions made possible by modern science & technology, in general. The plot is straight forward but opens layer by layer, and moves with a descent pace and ends with an unprecedented twist, making it an interesting, and quite enlightening read!
Recommended!
May 30, 2018
“Happy goldfish bowl to you”
Asimov was remarkably prescient as both an intellect and a writer. The Dead Past demonstrates the reasons why on both counts.
Published in 1956, The Dead Past is concerned about the loss of privacy through modern technology long before home computers, digital surveillance, and governmental obsession with counter terrorism. He understood exactly what was at stake if our lives were to become ‘transparent’ to others. And he understood the moral issues involved - not just those of personal integrity, but the more general ones of the ethical limits to human curiosity. The central question he raises is whether or not there is ever reason for the suppression of scientific knowledge.
In 2013, Dave Eggers published his novel, The Circle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which covers the same ground as Asimov’s story. Set in a Microsoft-like high-tech ‘campus’, the employees are expected to submit to a regime of ‘total transparency’ as a condition of employment. They and their families are monitored continuously. Privacy, and therefore secrecy, including the secrecy required for lies and deceit, are, as in The Dead Past eliminated. And Eggers describes precisely the effects that Asimov suggested almost six decades previously - essentially the breakdown of familial and civil relationships under the strain of ‘truth’ revealed through technology.
As is typical of much of Asimov, there is also a complex background against which his moral tale is played out. The clash of culture between scientific and literate academics, the increasing funding and control of research by government, the compartmentalization of knowledge required by modern industry, fake news, and the questionable ethics of research are all topics Asimov touches in this short piece. Each of these became publicly acknowledged in politics often only substantially after Asimov raised them.
If a mark of the writer’s art is its continuing relevance to humanity long after the particular conditions in which it was conceived have faded, Asimov’s work has proven itself to be of the first rank. He only gets better, it seems, as technology and its implications move on.
Asimov was remarkably prescient as both an intellect and a writer. The Dead Past demonstrates the reasons why on both counts.
Published in 1956, The Dead Past is concerned about the loss of privacy through modern technology long before home computers, digital surveillance, and governmental obsession with counter terrorism. He understood exactly what was at stake if our lives were to become ‘transparent’ to others. And he understood the moral issues involved - not just those of personal integrity, but the more general ones of the ethical limits to human curiosity. The central question he raises is whether or not there is ever reason for the suppression of scientific knowledge.
In 2013, Dave Eggers published his novel, The Circle (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which covers the same ground as Asimov’s story. Set in a Microsoft-like high-tech ‘campus’, the employees are expected to submit to a regime of ‘total transparency’ as a condition of employment. They and their families are monitored continuously. Privacy, and therefore secrecy, including the secrecy required for lies and deceit, are, as in The Dead Past eliminated. And Eggers describes precisely the effects that Asimov suggested almost six decades previously - essentially the breakdown of familial and civil relationships under the strain of ‘truth’ revealed through technology.
As is typical of much of Asimov, there is also a complex background against which his moral tale is played out. The clash of culture between scientific and literate academics, the increasing funding and control of research by government, the compartmentalization of knowledge required by modern industry, fake news, and the questionable ethics of research are all topics Asimov touches in this short piece. Each of these became publicly acknowledged in politics often only substantially after Asimov raised them.
If a mark of the writer’s art is its continuing relevance to humanity long after the particular conditions in which it was conceived have faded, Asimov’s work has proven itself to be of the first rank. He only gets better, it seems, as technology and its implications move on.
June 28, 2018
This isn't a real review, but me wanting to point out, as I've wanted to do for years, that we are here, we GOT here, and it's not quite as bad as he predicted because we've taken that technology-driven lack of privacy and flooded it with junkmail. In other words, how is someone supposed to truly spy on you if they have to sift through endless statuses about the heat of a Gainesville summer or pictures of beautiful sushi? (Which I say as a positive.)
So it turns out there was a solution after all. Sort of.
It's an excellent piece of writing with a twist that packs a hell of a punch. The missing star isn't because anything's wrong with the story objectively, but my preferential reaction to not liking downers. :P
TW for toddler death in the past. ETA: I can't overstress the importance of this particular trigger warning as it's a major motivating theme for a secondary character's behavior.
So it turns out there was a solution after all. Sort of.
It's an excellent piece of writing with a twist that packs a hell of a punch. The missing star isn't because anything's wrong with the story objectively, but my preferential reaction to not liking downers. :P
TW for toddler death in the past. ETA: I can't overstress the importance of this particular trigger warning as it's a major motivating theme for a secondary character's behavior.
June 24, 2014
First short story of an Asimov collection I found in my basement. A social commentary, Asimov wrote about organized research, the natural curiosity of man, the role of government and business in respect to scientific progress, privacy and whistleblowing. An excellent psychological undertone follows the primary character and his wife. Real characters and perspectives, twists and of course SCIENCE!
May 28, 2018
Full of surprising plot twists, this novelette about science and curiosity will blow you off your feet.
March 18, 2015
Nunca viene mal leer al amigo Isaac, y menos que menos cuando uno necesita un respiro entre libros largos o sagas para despejar la mente y porder abordar una nueva lectura con la cabeza fresca. Encontre este libro en uno de mis "dealers" de libros usados y aunque ya habia leido las historias me intrigo la portada.
El libro relata historias en el futuro en el cual la ciencia, en muchos casos, esta guiada por Multivac llevando a distintas perspectivas sobre cuestiones cotidianas que van desde como se cuentas las historias y metodos de educacion hasta investigacion cientifica censurada por el gobierno y elecciones presidenciales donde solo votan un puñado de personas.
En verdad fue un libro que me alegro de haber comprado porque pone los relatos en una perspectiva que no se consigue con los volumenes de cuentos completos. Para expresarlo mejor: las historias, a pesar de tratar de distintos temas, tienen un denominador comun y una ambientacion que no se aprecian de otra manera.
El libro relata historias en el futuro en el cual la ciencia, en muchos casos, esta guiada por Multivac llevando a distintas perspectivas sobre cuestiones cotidianas que van desde como se cuentas las historias y metodos de educacion hasta investigacion cientifica censurada por el gobierno y elecciones presidenciales donde solo votan un puñado de personas.
En verdad fue un libro que me alegro de haber comprado porque pone los relatos en una perspectiva que no se consigue con los volumenes de cuentos completos. Para expresarlo mejor: las historias, a pesar de tratar de distintos temas, tienen un denominador comun y una ambientacion que no se aprecian de otra manera.
December 12, 2013
This story is definitely not nine pages like mentioned in the description. This is a light novela-length story on the urges to understand the past. In this case, a historian's quest to glorify and shine the 'true' light into the great Carthaginian sovereignty in spite of its ancient enemies; and perhaps subconsciously pleading to allusions of his own past faults. All this through a covert radical experiment that has the potential to unleash drastic world changes. I read this in 2013, and I found it novel that the government is depicted as a bastion of privacy, and responsibility. Horribly opposite in light of the recent news of data mining, and extreme privacy intrusion.
November 22, 2015
When I hear the word of Sci-Fi, I remember one name: Isaac Asimov. The Dead Past is a great story happening in an academic environment. This story contains a few "shocks" that make it very catchy and strong. You can find the satisfying elements of a Sci-Fi that any reader wants: an interesting scientific idea (Science) and nice story telling (Fiction). The only imperfection of this story is that its start might be a little bit boring for non academic readers.
In all, I really liked the book and I strongly recommend it.
In all, I really liked the book and I strongly recommend it.
February 27, 2021
A superb short story. I just loved the characterization and how Asimov shows with his distinctive style that it's possible to write great literature grounded in the world of professors and researchers. The ending has an interesting twist, which I'm not going to spoil.
January 31, 2018
Un adelantado este ruso 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
November 1, 2024
Great little short story.
August 28, 2014
Dodges the cliches of "pure pursuit of knowledge can't be wrong or bad" and "any type of restraint on liberty is evil" and "the smart people as the moral good guys being oppressed by the stupider bureaucrats," but it does so in a way that isn't surprising or refreshing because of how obvious the story makes its twist. As soon as you learn that you know the technology in question isn't going to be a purely beneficial one- it's clearly going to exacerbate the character's problems, and not solve them. Once you make that connection within the first couple pages you can see everything coming until perhaps the last couple pages, where Asimov lets the main characters succeed despite their better judgment.
If the ideas I mentioned in the first sentence of this review were new to me then this story might receive a better rating, since those ideas are well worth considering, but I had come across them before. If you've never read a science fiction story portraying scientists as anything but the paradigms of human virtue and science as anything but the highest human achievement then you should read this story. Otherwise it is solid, but not one of Asimov's best (The Last Question, Nightfall)
If the ideas I mentioned in the first sentence of this review were new to me then this story might receive a better rating, since those ideas are well worth considering, but I had come across them before. If you've never read a science fiction story portraying scientists as anything but the paradigms of human virtue and science as anything but the highest human achievement then you should read this story. Otherwise it is solid, but not one of Asimov's best (The Last Question, Nightfall)
May 27, 2021
Es un cuento corto y muy sencillo de leer, en el que Isaac Asimov nos lleva a un mundo donde la ciencia está censurada, restringida y controlada por el gobierno. Los científicos tienen que decidir sobre que especialidad trabajar el resto de su vida, ya que intentar investigar (aunque sea solo por curiosidad) algo relacionado a alguna otra especialidad no está permitido. Sin embargo, el centro de la historia está en la Cronoscopía (una ciencia práctica que permite ver y escuchar el pasado).
Isaac Asimov nos relata esta historia con algunos giros interesantes en la trama y un final extraordinario, sobre todo, con la elegancia lo que caracteriza que nos relata un mundo de ciencia ficción de tal forma que no distrae en lo absoluto de la historia principal.
Isaac Asimov nos relata esta historia con algunos giros interesantes en la trama y un final extraordinario, sobre todo, con la elegancia lo que caracteriza que nos relata un mundo de ciencia ficción de tal forma que no distrae en lo absoluto de la historia principal.
August 30, 2017
My first of Isaac Asimov and i just read it to see if that this author is my type of author or not and he is. This story was really good from the start to end, thought proving. I loved it all the way though. The story were written wonderfully and the most amazing thing was the concept of the story. Then the story line was very good and the characters were just. This story is must read if you are a science geek.
August 4, 2014
This short story (quick read, can find with a simple google search) posits questions about the direction of research in the future: should the government be in charge of who gets to think about what? In classic Asimov fashion (granted, I've only read like 10 of his works), the ending is surprising and thought-provoking.
July 11, 2016
What exactly is the past? How far back does it go? What would happen to the world if we suddenly had access to it? These are the questions The Dark Past struggles with, balancing the importance of research with the frailties of human nature. Very Golden Age-y (oh Asimov... you and female characters...), but one of Asimov's lesser known greats.
December 14, 2016
It's been quite a while since I've read any Isaac Asimov, so this was interesting to return to. He's definitely the father of science fiction, in my opinion, and so many of today's modern sci-fi story lines have a root in his work.
That said, the characters are not actually folks you can root for in any way.
But the concepts are interesting and the writing top notch.
That said, the characters are not actually folks you can root for in any way.
But the concepts are interesting and the writing top notch.
March 2, 2016
I found it very wordy, even in the very few scenes it consisted of, which I also didn't like. But it comes to a somewhat nice _even though shocking conclusion in the end.
December 30, 2014
Very quotable. A "must-read" for scientists and keyboard warriors alike.
April 25, 2017
Разтърсваща и изключително интересна новела. Миналото трябва да остане мъртво.
September 23, 2015
Very interesting.
Great premise, great writing, and a nice twist.
Great premise, great writing, and a nice twist.
June 18, 2016
The content is appealing, but the writing style doesn't convince me.
December 29, 2017
A brilliant short story by Isaac Asimov about space, time and government secrets - if you want a quick and entertaining classic science fiction story to read then this may be the one for you.
September 16, 2019
Epsilon delta
June 30, 2019
Inleible, posta. No sé si soy yo que no le encuentro las vueltas a las cosas de ciencia ficción o qué, pero esto es verdaderamente feo.
September 9, 2025
Si el llibre i la part inicial fossin més curtes, el història seria molt millor. Amb moltes menys pàgines es pot explicar el mateix i millor.
Pd: Al final del llibre m'ha agradat.
Pd: Al final del llibre m'ha agradat.
August 26, 2020
El pasado Muerto
Siendo sincero, leí esta historia por mera casualidad: un simple capricho editorial. Tenía en la mano la edición primera de los Cuentos Completos de Asimov, y el primer cuento a leer fue este. La duración me pareció un poco más extensa que la de un cuento tradicional, digamos 'La última pregunta'. Lo que buscaba era un cuento corto, pero me encontré con algo que, si bien no era corto, valió la pena cada página.
Asimov nos presenta un futuro distópico, muy al estilo de otras novelas históricas como 1984 o Fahrenheit 451. La premisa era la misma, aunque un poco más moderada: el control de la información. En esta sociedad, el gobierno ha tomado el control de la investigación científica haciéndola tan burocrática como cualquier otra rama donde el Estado interfiere que actualmente conocemos.
La historia está llena de vida, mostrándonos a unos humanos de la década de los 60' (de los 2000) luchando con problemas que no se nos hubieran ocurrido jamás. La Anarquía Intelectual, la moralidad de conocer el pasado de cualquier persona, y si la investigación científica sin control puede ocasionar más mal que bien. Todas estas cuestiones parecen de lo más naturales contadas por Asimov.
Una lectura totalmente recomendada para cualquiera que quiera tener vistazo a un futuro no muy improbable, y a cualquiera que quiera tener algo de agradecimiento con nuestro presente, que ciertamente es mucho mejor que el mundo al final de la historia.
Siendo sincero, leí esta historia por mera casualidad: un simple capricho editorial. Tenía en la mano la edición primera de los Cuentos Completos de Asimov, y el primer cuento a leer fue este. La duración me pareció un poco más extensa que la de un cuento tradicional, digamos 'La última pregunta'. Lo que buscaba era un cuento corto, pero me encontré con algo que, si bien no era corto, valió la pena cada página.
Asimov nos presenta un futuro distópico, muy al estilo de otras novelas históricas como 1984 o Fahrenheit 451. La premisa era la misma, aunque un poco más moderada: el control de la información. En esta sociedad, el gobierno ha tomado el control de la investigación científica haciéndola tan burocrática como cualquier otra rama donde el Estado interfiere que actualmente conocemos.
La historia está llena de vida, mostrándonos a unos humanos de la década de los 60' (de los 2000) luchando con problemas que no se nos hubieran ocurrido jamás. La Anarquía Intelectual, la moralidad de conocer el pasado de cualquier persona, y si la investigación científica sin control puede ocasionar más mal que bien. Todas estas cuestiones parecen de lo más naturales contadas por Asimov.
Una lectura totalmente recomendada para cualquiera que quiera tener vistazo a un futuro no muy improbable, y a cualquiera que quiera tener algo de agradecimiento con nuestro presente, que ciertamente es mucho mejor que el mundo al final de la historia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 4, 2021
Rating: 3.5/5
Premise: Scientific research is now fully controlled by the state. Arnold Potterly, a professor of ancient history, tries to gain access to the “chronoscope”, an elusive device which allows direct observation of the past. He enlists a young physics researcher named Jonas Foster for help.
Why I picked it up: It’s the first story in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 (1990) which I also recently got. Issac Asimov is my favorite short story writer of all time, mainly because of “The Last Question” (November 1956). I first read that story in elementary and it hasn’t left me since. If you can take only one thing from this review, it’s to read that short story as soon as possible. Not even this one.
Notes: As with many other sci-fi stories, this one is dystopic. Asimov pushes the extremes of the (still existing) trend toward specialization in research and centralization of academic resources with his Big Brother research committee. The main theme plays towards power and privacy –familiar burdens of today’s technology.
One of the things I love about reading science fiction written in the 20th century is how their depiction of future technology comes so close yet so far at the same time.
In Asimov’s distant future, the internet was still unimaginable. Can’t relate!
This novelette was entertaining enough, but not particularly gripping in its mystery or clever in its final moral spin.
Premise: Scientific research is now fully controlled by the state. Arnold Potterly, a professor of ancient history, tries to gain access to the “chronoscope”, an elusive device which allows direct observation of the past. He enlists a young physics researcher named Jonas Foster for help.
Why I picked it up: It’s the first story in Isaac Asimov: The Complete Stories, Vol. 1 (1990) which I also recently got. Issac Asimov is my favorite short story writer of all time, mainly because of “The Last Question” (November 1956). I first read that story in elementary and it hasn’t left me since. If you can take only one thing from this review, it’s to read that short story as soon as possible. Not even this one.
Notes: As with many other sci-fi stories, this one is dystopic. Asimov pushes the extremes of the (still existing) trend toward specialization in research and centralization of academic resources with his Big Brother research committee. The main theme plays towards power and privacy –familiar burdens of today’s technology.
One of the things I love about reading science fiction written in the 20th century is how their depiction of future technology comes so close yet so far at the same time.
“The walls were simply lined with books. Not merely films. There were films, of course, but these were far outnumbered by the books-print on paper. He wouldn’t have thought so many books would exist in usable condition. That bothered Foster. Why should anyone want to keep so many books at home? Surely all were available in the university library, or, at the very worst, at the Library of Congress, if one wished to take the minor trouble of checking out a microfilm.”
In Asimov’s distant future, the internet was still unimaginable. Can’t relate!
This novelette was entertaining enough, but not particularly gripping in its mystery or clever in its final moral spin.
November 4, 2021
Collected in Earth Is Room Enough, The Best of Isaac Asimov and adapted into an episode of the TV series Out of the Unknown, the Dead Past starts innocuously enough, with Arnold Potterley, a professor of ancient Carthage, requesting access to the government controlled Chronoscope, in order to find out whether the Carthaginians sacrificed children by fire. He is turned down by the bureaucrats, for a very good reason. So he forms a team and starts a clandestine project to make an illegal Chronoscope.
He starts discovering things, but it isn't until the very end that they realize they were in fact playing with fire all along, once the government man reveals the true consequences. I had guessed some of it, but not the full extent and once it hit, my jaw dropped open. This is why this short story is one of the best Asimov has written.
And here we thought the Royals had it bad ...
He starts discovering things, but it isn't until the very end that they realize they were in fact playing with fire all along, once the government man reveals the true consequences. I had guessed some of it, but not the full extent and once it hit, my jaw dropped open. This is why this short story is one of the best Asimov has written.
And here we thought the Royals had it bad ...
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