I just started Azimov's 1951 classic science fiction series Foundation. It's set in the far distant future - so far in the future that humanity has spread to the edge of the galaxy and nobody even knows on which planet humanity originated. That information has just been lost over time.
A dozen or so pages in, one character is doing some research about a branch of science that allows people to predict a society's political future. And he's doing this research ... by looking at microfilm. Ooof.
Way to take me out of the story.
Seemed perfectly OK to me . . . when I first read it.
In the 50’s.
A lot is going to seem dated. Just dig it.
I really struggled to get into Foundation. Great premise though.
i’m struggling.
it’s all dialog. and it’s a very mid-century writerly kind of dialog, where everyone is witty and dry and speaks in long declarative sentences.
it sounds like a really boring black and white movie – i can almost hear the actors speaking very quickly in their loud, flat, 1950s British voices. there’s just a little bit of slap-back echo from the back of the soundstage. they’re all wearing boring gray suits. they’re all smoking. all the furniture is 1950s steel and vinyl.
Digital archives are always in danger of being made obsolete by advancing technology. But I can still read microfiche from 50 years ago.
Boom! Set, match, Asimov!
they’re still using pen and paper to take notes! and one guy keeps doing snuff!
i don’t want a future that looks like the past.
My local pub has tins of menthol snuff on the bar. If you sneeze then everyone laughs.
i’ve never in my life seen anyone do snuff. maybe i need to get out more.
It burns! Amazed it’s still legal tbh.
And what about all that smoking in Blade Runner?
And what about the rows of pay phones in Neuromancer?
And what about Krugman?
and “thumb drives” in Red Rising. 400 years from now, people are still calling things “thumb drives” ?
these are mostly little details that simply could’ve have been left out!
I think I plowed through that first book and couldn’t make it through another when I was around 16. Robots of Dawn is much better.