Welcome to Litsy!

Asimov describes himself as a conservative, but the 50 years since he wrote this book go to prove that relativity isn't confined to the Einsteinian physics he touches on in the early chapters of this book. The final section turns to society, the environment and the problems of finite resources, overpopulation and pollution. Now he'd be seen as far left-wing in his views, as exemplified by Trump's empty seat at today's G7 climate session. 👇🏼

Whilst Asimov's prediction was out geographically, the 1980s did see terrible famines in Africa. Meanwhile, in the UK, under the political policy of Austerity, in which the rich and privileged hoard resources at the expense of the increasing 'common' population, mortality rates are increasing and, for the first time since WWII, a developed Western nation sees it's population dying younger than the generation before it.

"It is odd that, though no one who has never studied chess would dream he could beat a Grand Master, so many strict amateurs with little or no scientific training are convinced they can point out the 'obvious' flaws in Einstein's theories."

Asimov seeks to explain fundamental scientific concepts to the lay person, in his usual lively style. Where I think he fails is in his admitted "sneering" at those adhering to pseudoscience, which is, regrettably, a large portion of the population. It's an attitude more likely to entrench than transform those ideas. I don't think he falls as far into this error as Dawkins, but I think Sagan's more inclusive approach works better, at least for me.

"Science may be, and has been, misused, but the proper cure for that is not to replace science by non-science and sense by nonsense - but to replace science-misused by science well-used."