Science Fiction

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Are robots the foundation for freedom from economic slavery?

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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by IzzyData@lemmy.ml to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.ml
 
 

I have never read the book for the Foundation trilogy or any of the books in the series. I’ve seen fans of the book be critical of this adaptation for not being faithful to Asimov’s original intent. I am unsure if I am better off having not read it yet and enjoying this TV series in ignorance or if I should have read the book first so I can properly understand the point Asimov was trying to make. None the less I cannot change the past and it is what it is. I enjoyed this show if for nothing else than the spectacular visuals for much of it. The very first episode had a beautiful depiction of an extremely large space elevator as well as its amazing destruction. A space elevator of this magnitude falling to the planet such as Trantor with its many layers of civilization and the entire planet being covered with a single city was truly incredible.

However, from then on the show has this stark contrast between all of the scenes featuring the Empire and everything else on Terminus. This is where our protagonists Gaal Dornick and Hari Seldon were sent to build the foundation that would reduce supposed dark ages following the inevitable collapse of the Empire. All of the scenes featuring the plot on Empire I found exciting and really well done while all of the scenes on Terminus and with Gaal, Hari and Salvor to be quite bland and stereotypical. Which is curious considering the Empire plot is mostly content written for the show and the plot on Terminus is vaguely resembling the plot Asimov wrote in the original trilogy.

My biggest gripe with the show might be that the plot from my understanding is often contradictory. The way Hari originally described the concept of psychohistory and its mathematics was that it takes a sufficiently large population to make any accurate predictions about future trends. No mere individual is significant enough to make any deviations in those trends. Yet rather consistently we see Gaal and even Hari himself make statements that they absolutely need to do some urgently as the fate of the galaxy depends on it. I don’t see how this can possibly be the case if the concept of psychohistory is to be taken as legitimate.

Despite some glaring inconsistencies I still enjoyed my time watching this show and look forward to the likely season 3 that is coming. In the meantime I might have to read the book to finally see the story as it was originally intended by Asimov.

3.5 / 5 Stars

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What the title says, I'm tired of the trope where humans are the least advanced in the universe.

I'd like to read something different where we're the more advanced ones (not necessarily the most advanced). As an example I quite enjoyed the Ender's Game sequels and the angle of us being the more advanced ones was quite interesting.

Do you have any recommendations?

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"Farscape features a diverse ensemble of characters who are initially escaping from corrupt authorities in the form of a militaristic organization called the Peacekeepers. The protagonists live inside a large bio-mechanical ship called Moya which is a living entity."

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I'm looking for sci-fi books that are (partially or fully) about environmentalism, preserving nature or the consequences of not doing so.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/42666

I recently discovered Bookwyrm and am really liking it. It's not quite as full-featured as The Storygraph or Goodreads but it covers all of the most important functionalities and it's federated which I appreciate. Something that it is missing Vs either The Storygraph or Goodreads at the moment is volume of reviews (ie. Volume of users.) However, your review won't get lost in the sea so much and I've found that it's been quite easy to find readers with similar interests.

Anyway, who here is using Bookwyrm? What's your account so we can all follow each other? (Mine is Unfreeze4257@books.theunseen)

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For me in SciFi I've been trying to hit some classics so I've read 'The Iron Dream' by Norman Spinrad, 'A Time of Changes' by Robert Silverberg and also the (recent release) 'Out of the Ruins' anthology.

Of those three I enjoyed 'The Iron Dream' the most since I didn't enjoy Silverberg's potraryal of women (and it doesn't seem to have literary intent like in 'The Iron Dream'.) 'Out of the Ruins had some bangers but it was a fairly inconsistent collection for me that mostly hasn't been memorable.

So, what are you currently reading or have recently read?

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submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.ml
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A couple of others that I really enjoyed are The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang and Diaspora by Greg Egan.

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Killing Picard (mattyberad.medium.com)
submitted 3 years ago by yogthos@lemmy.ml to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.ml
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I recently read William Gibson's Burning Chrome and at the moment i'm in the middle of the Mirrorshades Anthology. Would Love some suggestions for collections of short SF stories from one or multiple writers.

I especially enjoyed "The Gernsback Continuum" and "The Winter Market". So if you have anything similar i would be delighted.

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A few years back, I discovered the long-running military scifi series that starts with On Basilisk Station by David Weber.

It's my favorite novel series now. Anyone else a fan?