Isaac Asimov interviewed by none other than Bill Moyers has many insightful things to say and rightfully enough the interview is titled The World of Ideas.
Isaac Asimov had written 391 books since the year 1988. “At this rate I can see myself touching 400,” says the science fiction writer with long sideburns.
The 391th book was “As Far as The Human Eye Could See”. “It depends on what we are looking for. If we are seeing human history, we can’t see very far because human history is a chaotic thing. Small changes have big results, unpredictable in any direction. But if we were looking at something simple such as the stars, then it is possible to look far, far ahead. We may be wrong, but it is possible to make a case for something that might happen, one in a hundred years from now..,” says Asimov adding that he has taken the title of the book from Tennyson’s poem “Locksley Hall”. “I see pictures of the Universe out there which somehow becomes infinite…it can expand and expand until it is sufficiently thinly spaced to allow another Universe to begin…If the Universe doesn’t expand then a limitless ocean of vacuum out of which new Universes are constantly arising like bubbles out of water…we are just living in one that is suitable for life… Instead of arguing how many angels can dance on the point of a pin we argue about quantum weirdness…”
Asimov believes one can learn at any age provided the subject matter, “…strikes our fancy. If there is a subject I am ferociously interested in, I read and absorb gladly. I have written most books about astronomy and no one has complained that I was wrong or…I’ve never taken a course on it. I am completely self-taught. On the other hand I have written few books in chemistry. I have a PhD in chemistry but I know too much chemistry to get excited about it…It seems to me that when it is time to die and that will come to all of us, there will be a certain pleasure in thinking that you have utilized your life well. That you have learnt as much as you could, gathered in as much and enjoyed it…only this one lifetime to do so…what a tragedy to pass through and get nothing out of it…every idea I have ever had I have written down, so I won’t be gone…I will be there…I write because I enjoy it. It is sheer hedonism.”
Asimov says we are going to have a revolution in education because human beings will stop doing all that they should not be doing and so they will be left with only creative jobs.
You cannot get creative overnight it will have to be a build-up. The description he gives is more of the kind of a special university for each individual.
“Everyone is forced to learn the same thing at the same pace in school... Give him a chance to follow up his own interest and his creativity will boom…” So Asimov speaks on how the computer will guide your interest into creative ambits; learning has to be life long.
“Science does not pervade absolute truth…it is a mechanism, a system for testing your thoughts against the Universe and seeing if they match...In the old ages people did not worry about the future, now we must. We may not be around, our children may be around, the human race will be around,” says Asimov as he laughingly adds, “My books will survive and I would not have people around to read them!…Perhaps I do have excessive belief in rationality but I do not have anything else to put my faith in...matters of faith are not compelling…even if you have a revelation how can you transfer your faith…as far as reason is concerned there is a system of transfer and logic…there are compelling arguments…”
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Web link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CwUuU6C4pk