Foundation and Earth (The Foundation Series: Sequels, Book 2)

by Isaac Asimov

‘It means that anything that is said and done on my ship that you hear and see will be heard and seen by all of Gaia.’ ‘I am Gaia so what I see, hear and sense, Gaia will see, hear and sense.’

A depate about social media and Google thirty years before the industry even existed!

‘I neither like nor dislike. The creature simply makes me uneasy. For one thing, it’s a grisly feeling to be dealing with a hermaphrodite.’

It's fascinating that a world of hermaphrodites is genderphobic, a reversal of the transphobia of the real world. Trevize, also, shows is dicomfort with gender ambiguity, uncomfortable with not knowing what pronouns to use. Asimov is an excellent social critic, along with everything else that makes him great!

‘it’s annoying not to know the pronoun to use in connection with the creature. It impedes thought and conversation to hesitate forever at the pronoun.’