"Asimov, Isaac - 1988 Polish Interview With Isaac Asimov" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

computerized world, with robots doing most of the dull work or a space centered
world with people moving out into orbit about the Earth and reaching the
asteroids. But I can also see a polluted world in which the quality of life
sinks and one in which there is a nuclear war and we destroy ourselves. There is
nothing that MUST be, everything depends entirely on what we decide to do.
Naturally I would like to see Civilization to continue and improve. I think
everyone would. But still, people tend to do things that harm Humanity.
SW: When I wrote in my letter that it is great to live in the world advanced
fifty years in time (comparing Eastern Europe and the United States) you
disagreed... Why?
IA: Well, you can always catch up with technology. One hundred years ago Japan
put a mind to it and caught up to Western Europe. When there is a model to
follow it is easy. However advancing, as we do, means also that we probably
pollute the environment more than any other nation does and we use up more
resources more wastefully. These things are not particularly admirable. Not all
"advancement" is advancement.
SW: Who do you think will be the next president of the United States? Will this
be good or bad for the United States?
IA: Oh, that I can't say. I know who I'm voting for - I'm voting for Dukakis.
But I vote Democratic all the time. Sometimes I win, sometimes I don't. I'll
vote Democratic this time.
SW: If you were to choose a place and time to live in, when and where would you
choose? And why?
IA: It would be right now, right here. I'm used to this world. I know how to get
along in it and it has some things in it I don't want to give up - like modern
medicine. Without it I would be dead now. My angina was very bad and I didn't
think I had long to live. I've had a triple bypass surgery and now I feel
fine... I had half of my thyroid taken out sixteen years ago, because it was
cancerous. If not for that I'd probably be dead by now. That's why I don't look
towards a simpler life without antibiotics, without modern surgery, anesthetics
etc. In this simpler life in the Past there are also slaves. Who knows? I might
have been a slave. So I'll take it right now, with all its faults.
SW: What do you think is the most difficult barrier to overcome in figuring out
the methods of interstellar travel?
IA: The most insurmountable is the speed of light limit. As long as we can't go
faster than the speed of light we can't reach any but the nearest stars in our
lifetime. In a case of speeds close to the speed of light it may seem to the
people who are traveling that in less than lifetime they can reach a distant
galaxy. But here, on Earth, millions of years will pass - so that they'll never
be able to come back to their own world. And I'm afraid there is no way of
beating that...
SW: In your novels people are traveling faster than light...
IA: That's true! But that's in the novel. You must never confuse your dreams
with reality. It is easy to dream and it is fun to dream. But if you actually
think that reality is got to fit your dreams, then I'm afraid that you are not
quite sane.... I'm sane. I know what is real and what is a dream.
SW: Our perception and knowledge about this world is based on Einstein's General
Relativity theories but these can be replaced in the future with better ones,
just like Newton's theories were...
IA: I know, and in my books I'm always careful to point out that there are