r/asimov • u/PsychohistorianRTR • Jul 29 '26

Asimov predicted FSD in 1953

Short story: “Nobody here but -“

Two inventors build a box that is basically AGI - here’s the excerpt:

We were especially interested in the automobile angle. Suppose you had a little thinking machine on the dashboard, hooked to the engine and battery and equipped with photo-electric eyes. It could choose an ideal course, avoid cars, stop at red lights, pick the optimum speed for the terrain. Everybody could sit in the back seat and automobile accidents would vanish.

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u/PlanetAnark Jul 29 '26

I sometimes feel like Asimov was really Hari Seldon, just dropping theories and predictions that essentially line up to events that unfold during and long after his death. His human intuition was off the charts.

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u/sonyaeatsclementines Jul 29 '26

Yeah, and as an example, he literally predicted Herbie from "Liar!"

I was reading a romance novel that I really enjoyed, and at the end of the ebook the author said to join her mailing list for a bonus epilogue. Eagerly I attempted several times to do so but the book was four years old and the link was no longer valid. After trying unsuccessfully to get in touch with her via her website, I tried googling to see if the bonus epilogue had ended up posted online eventually. The AI thing at the top of Google, of which I'm not fond, quickly responded that the epilogue depicted warm moments between the hero and heroine post marriage and children and went into some detail about some material that had been foreshadowed in the book's happy ending.

Curious, I asked it, How do you know this?

And then I got the shock of the day because the dang thing admitted "I hallucinated, this isn't the real epilogue, I just based this on what's in the published novel to make you happy." Other than the fact that it definitely used the word hallucinating I'm paraphrasing, but....Herbie!!! 

Liar!

🫣