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Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov Quotes

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“Bana iyi olduğumun söylenmesine bayılıyorum. Neden mi ? Kesinlikle, beni iyi olduğuma ikna ettiğinden filan değil. Beni, bir başka insanı benim iyi iş çıkardığımı düşündürtecek kadar etkileyebilmiş olduğuma ikna eder de ondan. O insan için ben hakikaten iyiyimdir. Bu gerçekten de harikadır; zeka düzeyiniz doğuştan bellidir, sizin elinizde değildir, hem korkunç ve iğrenç insanların da son derece parlak zekaları olabilir; ya da yakışıklı olabilirler, den den; sağlıklı; den den; müzikal yetenek, den den; yazarlık kabiliyeti, den den; ne varsa her şey, den den. Oysa iyi olma, bir başkasını mutlu edebilme kapasitesi tamamen sizin yarattığınız, yaratılması son derece güç ve fakat bir o kadar da tatmin edicidir.”

“The Solarians have given up something mankind has had for a million years; something worth more than atomic power, cities, agriculture, tools, fire, everything; because it's something that made everything else possible. (...) The tribe, sir. Co-operation between individuals. Solaria has given it up entirely. It is a world of isolated individuals and the planet's only sociologist is delighted that this is so. That sociologist, by the way, never heard of sociomathematics, because he is inventing his own science. There is no one to teach him, no one to help him, no one to think of something he himself might miss. The only science that really flourishes on Solaria is robotics and there are only a handful of men involved in that, and when it came to an analysis of the interaction of robots and men, they had to call in an Earthman to help.”

“I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance ... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance ... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.”

“Surely, if we take on thinking partners - or, at the least, thinking servants - in the form of machines, we will be more comfortable with them, and will relate to them more easily, if they are shaped like humans. It will be easier to be friends with human-shaped robots than with specialized machines of unrecognizable shape. And I sometimes think that, in the desperate straits of humanity today, we would be grateful to have nonhuman friends, even if they are only the friends we build ourselves.”

“The Earth faces environmental problems right now that threaten the imminent destruction of civilization and the end of the planet as a livable world. Humanity cannot afford to waste its financial and emotional resources on endless, meaningless quarrels between each group and all others. there must be a sense of globalism in which the world unites to solve the real problems that face all groups alike.”

“The Three Laws of Robotics: 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law; The Zeroth Law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.”

“Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.”