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Isaac Asimov - Prophets of Sci-Fi, Satisfaction Guaranteed, The Last Question (3 x Audio CD)

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Prophets of Sci-Fi:

He saved the future from Evil Robots! Faced with a sci-fi tradition where robots exist only to torment their human creators, Isaac Asimov dreamed a better future where we need not fear our own technology. With his breakthrough sci-fi story collection, I, Robot, Asimov laid the ground rules for robo-behavior both in fiction and perhaps one day in real life. With stories like Robbie and Runaround, Isaac Asimov wrote of a future where mechanical men can do our jobs for us. His ideas inspired General Motors to create Unimate (the first industrial robot) and paved the way for the widespread automation of modern industry. In The Naked Sun, Asimov warns that mankind will attempt to use robots as tools of warfare. Today, increasingly advanced robotic soldiers wage war on the front lines of the modern battlefield. Asimov's Bicentennial Man foretells the merging of man and machine with the advent of transhuman technology. Today, bionic limbs implanted smart chips, and even strength-enhancing robotic exoskeletons indicate that Asimov's age of the transhuman is upon us. He's now regarded as the father of robotics. Isaac Asimov's amazingly prolific body of work — over 500 books — set the stage for a robo-friendly world. Today, droid doctors save lives performing delicate spinal surgery, and automaton astronauts repair orbital stations in the vacuum of space. And it all started with Isaac Asimov's futuristic vision: a robot in every home.

Running Time: 41 Minutes 36 Seconds.

Satisfaction Guaranteed:

Robot TN-3 (also known as Tony) is designed as a humanoid household robot, an attempt by US Robots to get robots accepted in the home. He is placed with Claire Belmont, whose husband works for the company, as an experiment, but she is reluctant to accept him. Tony realizes that Claire has very low self-esteem, and tries to help her by redecorating her house and giving her a make-over. Finally, he pretends to be her lover, and deliberately lets the neighbors see him kissing Claire, thus increasing her self-esteem. In the end, though, Claire falls in love with Tony, and becomes conflicted and ultimately depressed when he is taken back to the lab. The TN-3 robot models are scheduled to be redesigned, since US Robots thinks that they should not produce a model that will appear to fall in love with women. US Robots robopsychologist Susan Calvin dissents, aware that women may nevertheless fall in love with robots.

Running Time: 42 Minutes 24 Seconds.

The Last Question:

Can entropy be reversed? The sci-fi guru's proposed answer takes in infinity, immortality and creation.

"This is by far my favorite story of all those I have written.
After all, I undertook to tell several trillion years of human history in the space of a short story and I leave it to you as to how well I succeeded. I also undertook another task, but I won't tell you what that was lest l spoil the story for you.

It is a curious fact that innumerable readers have asked me if I wrote this story. They seem never to remember the title of the story or (for sure) the author, except for the vague thought it might be me. But, of course, they never forget the story itself especially the ending. The idea seems to drown out everything -- and I'm satisfied that it should. "

- Isaac Asimov

Running Time: 28 Minutes 06 Seconds.

Format: 3 x Audio CD.