Isaac Asimov – Quote Investigator®

Quote Origin: We Live in a Science Fiction Age. Yesterday’s Fantasy Is Already Today’s Fact

Isaac Asimov? Leonard Nimoy? Allen Ginsberg? Jane Kramer? Donald A. Wollheim? Chester Whitehorn? Ric Ocasek? Greg Hawkes? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Nowadays technological changes are occurring with vertiginous rapidity, and I am reminded of statements like these:

We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact.

There’s nothing to be learned from history any more. We’re in science fiction now.

Surprisingly, these pronouncements were made several decades ago. Would you please help me to find citations?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Here is an overview with dates and attributions which presents a sampling of similar declarations:

1954: We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact. — Chester Whitehorn, Editor of short-lived “Science Fiction Digest”

1957 Jan: The bizarre fact that we do live in a science-fiction world. — Canadian Journalist James Cameron (not the moviemaker)

1968 Jun: We do live in a science fiction age. — John M. Connor, Librarian

1969: There’s nothing to be learned from history any more. We’re in science fiction now. — Allen Ginsberg, Poet

1971: I have had the disturbing conviction that we are all living in a science-fiction story. — Donald A. Wollheim, Science fiction editor

1974 May: We live in a science fiction age. — Leonard Nimoy, actor who played Spock in “Star Trek”

1975: We live, indisputably, in a science fiction world. — James E. Gunn, Science fiction scholar and author (not the moviemaker)

1978: Everything is science fiction. And I ought to know. — Ric Ocasek and Greg Hawkes, members of the rock group The Cars

1982: I think we’re living in a science fiction world right now. — Isaac Asimov, Science fiction author

2023 May: On what date do you expect @GreatDismal to go from being science fiction writer to historian? — UK director Duncan Jones

In 1954 optimistic editor Chester Whitehorn founded a periodical called “Science Fiction Digest”. Sadly, only two issues were published before the effort failed.^[1] 1993, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, Entry: Science Fiction Digest, Quote Page 1064, Column 1, St. Martin’s Press, New York. (Verified with scans) Whitehorn was convinced that the world had entered a new era of futuristic possibilities. He wrote the following in an editor’s note:^[2]1954, Science Fiction Digest, Volume 1, Number 1, Editor Chester Whitehorn, Article Title: S.F.D. Notes, Quote Page 1, Publisher: Specific Fiction Corporation, New York. Note about date: The month of … Continue reading

We live in a science-fiction age. Yesterday’s fantasy is already today’s fact; and today’s imaginings, well, perhaps only 24 hours from now, they too will have come to pass.

Additional details and citations are available in the article on the Medium platform which is located here.

Image Notes: Illustration of geometric shape embedded in space from spirit111 at Pixabay. The image has been cropped.

Acknowledgement: This article is dedicated to the memory of science fiction fan and librarian extraordinaire Dennis Lien who asked fascinating questions and helped QI on many occasions. Special thanks to Charles C. Doyle who accessed the issue of “Science Fiction Digest”. Also, thanks to Ben Zimmer who told QI about the tweet referencing William Gibson. Additional thanks to Fred Shapiro who placed the quotation from Alan Ginsberg in “The New Yale Book of Quotations” where QI encountered it for the first time.

Update History: On May 18, 2023 the 1954 citation was updated with details after the hardcopy of issue number 1, volume 1 was accessed. Also, on May 18, 2023 the tweet from Duncan Jones was added to the article.

References

References
↑1	1993, The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, Entry: Science Fiction Digest, Quote Page 1064, Column 1, St. Martin’s Press, New York. (Verified with scans)
↑2	1954, Science Fiction Digest, Volume 1, Number 1, Editor Chester Whitehorn, Article Title: S.F.D. Notes, Quote Page 1, Publisher: Specific Fiction Corporation, New York. Note about date: The month of the issue was not specified in the hardcopy; “The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction” (1993) edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls states that issue number one appeared in February 1954. (Verified with hardcopy)

Science Gathers Knowledge Faster Than Society Gathers Wisdom

Isaac Asimov? Michio Kaku? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Science has been extraordinarily successful in making impressive discoveries. Yet, humankind’s thoughtfulness and judgement have been severely tested by the new insights and capabilities that have emerged. A prominent science fiction author said:

Science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.

Would you please help me to identify the author of this statement together with a citation?

Quote Investigator: In 1988 Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman published “Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations”. The work contained 86 sections, and each began with a quotation from Asimov. The epigraph for the “Science and Society” section was the following. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1988, Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, Edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, Chapter 72: Science and Society, (Quotation appears as chapter epigraph), Quote Page … Continue reading

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
ISAAC ASIMOV

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Science Gathers Knowledge Faster Than Society Gathers Wisdom

References

References
↑1	1988, Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, Edited by Isaac Asimov and Jason A. Shulman, Chapter 72: Science and Society, (Quotation appears as chapter epigraph), Quote Page 281, A Blue Cliff Editions Book: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, New York. (Verified with scans; Internet Archive)

Milli-Helen: The Quantity of Beauty Required To Launch Exactly One Ship

Isaac Asimov? W. A. H. Rushton? R. C. Winton? Edgar J. Westbury? Christopher Marlowe? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Standards of beauty are notoriously subjective and variable. Different qualities are prized over time, and distinct cultures value divergent attributes.

In the domain of Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman in the world. English playwright Christopher Marlowe’s tragedy “Doctor Faustus” contains the following lines about her:

Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium

An aspiring humorist proposed the “Helen” as a measure of female pulchritude. Thus, the “milli-Helen” (one thousandth of a “Helen”) was the amount of beauty sufficient to launch one ship. The hyphen is sometimes omitted. This quip has been attributed to science fiction author Isaac Asimov and physiologist W. A. H. Rushton. Would you please examine this topic?

Quote Investigator: The earliest published evidence known to QI appeared in the London humor magazine “Punch” in 1954. The quip was attributed to an unnamed “professor of natural philosophy”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1954 June 23, Punch or The London Charivari, Volume 226, Issue Number 5936, Page Title: Punch: Charivaria, Quote Page 737, Column 3, Published at the Office of Punch, London, England. (Gale Cengage … Continue reading

Scientists and aesthetes alike have heard with interest that the “unit of absolute beauty” has been invented by a professor of natural philosophy, who calls it a Helen and explains that it is divisible into millihelens. It is hoped that the millihelen may in time be interpreted in terms of power, when it should prove handy for launching a single ship.

In 1992 science fiction luminary Isaac Asimov made the interesting claim that he invented the term “millihelen” during a discussion with a friend in the early 1940s. See the 1992 citation given further below. QI has not yet located substantive support for this claim.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Milli-Helen: The Quantity of Beauty Required To Launch Exactly One Ship

References

References
↑1	1954 June 23, Punch or The London Charivari, Volume 226, Issue Number 5936, Page Title: Punch: Charivaria, Quote Page 737, Column 3, Published at the Office of Punch, London, England. (Gale Cengage “Punch” Historical Archive)

“Only Six Months To Live. What Would You Do Then?” “Type Faster”

Isaac Asimov? Barbara Walters? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: An interviewer decided to challenge a popular and prolific author with the specter of mortality. What would the energetic scribbler do when given a prognosis of death within a year asked the interviewer. The preternaturally fixated author replied, “Type faster”.

Would you please help me to identify the author and locate a citation?

Quote Investigator: In January 1977 Isaac Asimov published a column in “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction” containing a description of an interview during which he employed the quip. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1977 January, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 52, Number 1, SCIENCE: Discovery by Blink by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 123, Quote Page 123 and 124, Mercury Press, New York. (Verified … Continue reading

Another interviewer once tried to break down my stubborn resistance to any way of spending my life other than at the typewriter, by saying to me, “But suppose you knew you had only six months to live. What would you do then?”

And without hesitation. I said, “Type faster.”

Well, what’s wrong with that attitude? There are many people who are, or were, monomaniacally interested in whatever field of endeavor absorbed them. It’s just that most of these fields are not as noticeable to the general public as writing is.

Asimov did not name the interviewer in the passage above, but in the 1980 citation given further below, Asimov identified his questioner as television journalist Barbara Walters.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “Only Six Months To Live. What Would You Do Then?” “Type Faster”

References

References
↑1	1977 January, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Volume 52, Number 1, SCIENCE: Discovery by Blink by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 123, Quote Page 123 and 124, Mercury Press, New York. (Verified with scans)

It Is Easy To Predict an Automobile in 1880; It Is Very Hard To Predict a Traffic Problem

Frederik Pohl? Robert Heinlein? Isaac Asimov? Connie Willis? Ed Bryant? George Zebrowski? Ben Bova? Robert J. Sawyer? Sam Moskowitz?

Dear Quote Investigator: Predicting the primary effects of a new technology is difficult but feasible. Anticipating all the secondary effects is nearly impossible. Here are two statements of a viewpoint that has achieved popularity amongst science fiction aficionados:

In the nineteenth century a machine enthusiast could have predicted the automobile, but an SF writer could have predicted the traffic jam.

It is easy to predict the automobile but difficult to predict the traffic jam.

Would you please explore this saying?

Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI occurred in a 1953 essay by prolific science and SF author Isaac Asimov titled “Social Science Fiction”. Asimov discussed three different types of SF stories:^[1]1953, Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, Edited Reginald Bretnor, Chapter: Social Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 157, Quote Page 171, Coward-McCann, New York. (Verified … Continue reading

Let us suppose it is 1880 and we have a series of three writers who are each interested in writing a story of the future about an imaginary vehicle that can move without horses by some internal source of power; a horseless carriage, in other words.

According to Asimov, gadget SF, the first type of tale, highlights the struggle to invent such a device and climaxes with its successful demonstration. Adventure SF, the second type, presents a romantic tale that hinges on using the device during action packed scenes. Social SF, the third type, explores the complex ramifications of the device as it is deployed within a society.

Asimov remarked that automobiles catalyzed the construction of suburbs. He also observed that vast networks of busy roadways resulted in large numbers of injuries and deaths. These indirect consequences of automobile usage would not have been easy to foresee. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:^[2]1953, Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, Edited Reginald Bretnor, Chapter: Social Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 157, Quote Page 172, Coward-McCann, New York. (Verified … Continue reading

It is easy to predict an automobile in 1880; it is very hard to predict a traffic problem. The former is really only an extrapolation of the railroad. The latter is something completely novel and unexpected.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading It Is Easy To Predict an Automobile in 1880; It Is Very Hard To Predict a Traffic Problem

References

References
↑1	1953, Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, Edited Reginald Bretnor, Chapter: Social Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 157, Quote Page 171, Coward-McCann, New York. (Verified with scans; Internet Archive)
↑2	1953, Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future, Edited Reginald Bretnor, Chapter: Social Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, Start Page 157, Quote Page 172, Coward-McCann, New York. (Verified with scans; Internet Archive)

The Fellow Who Thinks He Knows It All Is Especially Annoying To Those of Us Who Do

Isaac Asimov? Harold Coffin? Unitarian Church Bulletin? Robert Reisner? Joey Adams? Milton Berle? Robert K. Mueller? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Know-it-alls are eager to assert their expertise on all subjects. I love the following comical reaction to grandiose egotism:

Those who believe they know everything are a great nuisance to those of us who do.

The science fiction grandmaster Isaac Asimov has received credit for this line, but I have been unable to find any solid evidence. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: This quip is difficult to trace because it has been expressed in many different ways, and it has evolved over time. Here is a sampling:

The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.
People who think they know everything are terribly irritating to those of us who do.
Those who think they know it all upset those of us who do.
Those who think they know it all are very annoying to those who do.
People who think they know everything always annoy those of us who do.
People who think they know it all always bug people who do.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.

The earliest match located by QI appeared as a filler item in “The Saturday Evening Post” in 1961. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:^[1] 1961 May 6, The Saturday Evening Post, (Filler item), Quote Page 93, Column 2, Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (EBSCO MasterFILE Premier)

The fellow who thinks he knows it all is especially annoying to those of us who do.
HAROLD COFFIN

Coffin was a humor columnist with the Associated Press (AP) news service in the 1960s and 1970s. He wrote a feature called “Coffin’s Needle” although QI has not found the joke in Coffin’s AP writings.^[2] 1981 September 18, The New York Times, Harold Coffin (Obituary), Quote Page D15, New York. (ProQuest)

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading The Fellow Who Thinks He Knows It All Is Especially Annoying To Those of Us Who Do

References

References
↑1	1961 May 6, The Saturday Evening Post, (Filler item), Quote Page 93, Column 2, Curtis Publishing Company, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (EBSCO MasterFILE Premier)
↑2	1981 September 18, The New York Times, Harold Coffin (Obituary), Quote Page D15, New York. (ProQuest)

Your Assumptions Are Your Windows On the World. Scrub Them Off Every Once In a While, Or the Light Won’t Come In

Isaac Asimov? Alan Alda? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The assumptions we make about the world transform the way we perceive it; hence, we should periodically challenge our own assumptions. A quotation that makes this point and uses windows metaphorically was crafted by either science fiction writer Isaac Asimov or actor Alan Alda. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: Alan Alda gave the Commencement Address at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut when his daughter was in the graduating class of 1980. The text of his speech is available in the Digital Commons section of the college’s website. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:^[1]Website: Digital Commons at Connecticut College, Speech title: 62nd Commencement Address, Speech author: Alan Alda, Speech date (on website): June 1, 1980, Website description: An electronic archive … Continue reading

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in. If you challenge your own, you won’t be so quick to accept the unchallenged assumptions of others. You’ll be a lot less likely to be caught up in bias or prejudice or be influenced by people who ask you to hand over your brains, your soul or your money because they have everything all figured out for you.

QI has found no substantive evidence that Isaac Asimov who died in 1992 made this remark about windows although the words were assigned to him by 2002.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Your Assumptions Are Your Windows On the World. Scrub Them Off Every Once In a While, Or the Light Won’t Come In

References

References
↑1	Website: Digital Commons at Connecticut College, Speech title: 62nd Commencement Address, Speech author: Alan Alda, Speech date (on website): June 1, 1980, Website description: An electronic archive of research and publication for Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. (Accessed digitalcommons.conncoll.edu on December 27, 2018) link

Part of the Inhumanity of the Computer Is That Once It Is Competently Programmed and Working Smoothly—It Is Completely Honest

Quotation: Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that once it is competently programmed and working smoothly—it is completely honest.

Creator: Isaac Asimov, bestselling author of science fiction and science books

Context: The book “Change! Seventy-One Glimpses of the Future” contained a series of short speculative essays detailing Isaac Asimov’s visions of the future. The piece “Who Needs Money?” discussed a cashless economy based on computerized electronic money. Asimov believed that the precise tracking of transactions via computer would reduce duplicity:^[1] 1981, Change! Seventy-One Glimpses of the Future by Isaac Asimov, Chapter 6: Who Needs Money?, Start Page 15, Quote Page 17, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans)

Abuses? They might actually decrease as dishonest dealing and tax evasion became more difficult. Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that once it is competently programmed and working smoothly—it is completely honest.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Luigi Muzii who requested a verified citation for this quotation.

References

References
↑1	1981, Change! Seventy-One Glimpses of the Future by Isaac Asimov, Chapter 6: Who Needs Money?, Start Page 15, Quote Page 17, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans)

If We’re Lucky, Robots Might Decide To Keep Us as Pets

Isaac Asimov? Marvin Minsky? Paul Saffo? Edward Fredkin? Bruce Sterling?

Dear Quote Investigator: Reportedly, a top researcher in artificial intelligence once said something like:

Humans will be lucky if superintelligent robots treat them as pets.

At some point a grim elaboration was appended:

If humans are unlucky, they will be treated as food.

Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: In 1970 “LIFE” magazine journalist Brad Darrach wrote an article about Shakey the Robot, an early mobile robot built at the Stanford Research Institute. The primitive device was grandly called the “first electronic person” within the article title. Darrach interviewed Marvin Minsky, a leading researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who was quoted making a startling prediction:^[1]1970 November 20, LIFE, Meet Shaky, the first electronic person: The fascinating and fearsome reality of a machine with a mind of its own by Brad Darrach, Start Page 58B, Quote Page 58D, 66, and 68, … Continue reading

In from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being. I mean a machine that will be able to read Shakespeare, grease a car, play office politics, tell a joke, have a fight. At that point the machine will begin to educate itself with fantastic speed. In a few months it will be at genius level and a few months after that its powers will be incalculable.

Minsky and a colleague warned that intelligent computers should not be put in control of indispensable systems; instead, they must be carefully controlled. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:

The problem of computer control will have to be solved, Minsky and Papert believe, before computers are put in charge of systems essential to society’s survival. If a computer directing the nation’s economy or its nuclear defenses ever rated its own efficiency above its ethical obligation, it could destroy man’s social order—or destroy man. “Once the computers got control,” says Minsky, “we might never get it back. We would survive at their sufferance. If we’re lucky, they might decide to keep us as pets.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order including a 1985 passage asserting that Minsky denied making the statement about pets. Continue reading If We’re Lucky, Robots Might Decide To Keep Us as Pets

References

References
↑1	1970 November 20, LIFE, Meet Shaky, the first electronic person: The fascinating and fearsome reality of a machine with a mind of its own by Brad Darrach, Start Page 58B, Quote Page 58D, 66, and 68, Time Inc., New York. (Google Books Full View)

Never Think That You’re Not Good Enough

Anthony Trollope? Isaac Asimov? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, I saw a tweet ascribing the following words to the popular Victorian era English novelist Anthony Trollope:

Above all else, never think you’re not good enough.

Curiously, when I searched for a citation I found that it was also ascribed to the science fiction master Isaac Asimov. Would you please help me to identify the true originator?

Quote Investigator: In 1863 Anthony Trollope serialized the novel “The Small House at Allington” in “Harper’s New Monthly Magazine”. A character who was an earl offered the following advice. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:^[1]1863 September, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Volume 27, The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope, Chapter 32: Pawkins’s In Jermyn Street, Start Page 518, Quote Page 522, Harper … Continue reading

And, above all things, never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning.

Isaac Asimov was born in 1920 and died in 1992; the saying was attributed to him by 2009. Thus, he did not craft the expression, and the evidence that he ever employed it is very weak.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading Never Think That You’re Not Good Enough

References

References
↑1	1863 September, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Volume 27, The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope, Chapter 32: Pawkins’s In Jermyn Street, Start Page 518, Quote Page 522, Harper and Brothers, New York. (Google Books Full View) link