Name any influential person?

[spud42]

Asimov

For his fictional works, or his science popularization efforts?

tl;dr version ........ both.

a very smart and interesting man.chemistry,biology what didnt he do? wonder how many people knew he was a professor?

[Wildeblood]

Asimov

For his fictional works, or his science popularization efforts?

tl;dr version ........ both.

a very smart and interesting man.chemistry,biology what didn't he do? wonder how many people knew he was a professor?

Well, er, me! Now's the time to confess I'm not a fan of sci-fi and have never read any of Asimov's fiction.

[Alex]

Well, er, me! Now's the time to confess I'm not a fan of sci-fi and have never read any of Asimov's fiction.

You didn't miss anything, I've read a few just to see what was being talked about.
Summ up.. Very slow, painfully slow and story doesn't actually go anywhere. Timing milk curdle was more entertaining.

You want something to read? Look at Terry Pratchett for fun and a laugh or Fiest for enthralling epics.
Join the local Library, pick your own genre.
But Terry Pratchett is a must for anyone with a sense of humour.

[spud42]

recoment the MYTH series very funny stuff.

dude Asimov invented the three laws of robotics... lol

Foundation series, lazarus long series etc.... just didnt write anything with magic and swords or dwarfs etc..... real scifi not fantasy... which seems to be all you can get lately. except for Drew's books...lol.

[Wildeblood]

dude Asimov invented the three laws of robotics... lol

Four laws. But they can be explained concisely in a one-page article. They don't justify a series of [how many?] novels.

[Amah]

Ok, not that I'd trust wikipedia on anything I haven't forged myself but... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics

I happen to like Asimov, though I think I just read "I Robot" a long time ago.

As for sci fi with some humour, apart from the Adam's Hitchhiker (which I watched as a BBC series when I was young), there was a German mini series based on Stanislav Lem's "Ijon Tychi". Can't say I laughed much, but hey, what do we Germans know what's funny

[spud42]

lol... the so called Zeroth law was devised by the robots themselves......

Lexx . ....... . part German part Canadian scifi quite weird but i liked it.. especially Eva Habermann

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115243/?re ... lmg_act_92

[Amah]

I remember watching Lexx week after week in the middle of the night on German telly.

Those insect inspired ships really rocked.

[SteveKing]

For the possibility of interpreting the subject a little differently -

My Maths teacher in yr8 - a Mr Strickland - who put the fear of the 'dreaded note home to my parents' so I always did my homework and so ended up with a top 30% in the state for maths in yr12.

My upper high school chemistry teacher - a Mr Rowbottom (no, not Longbottom) - who was a geologist and one of the other students in my year who asked 'What does a geologist know about chemistry', so I did geology to find out.

Antonio Bandaras, because he knew how to lead

[Alex]

Oh teachers that made a difference:

Physics teacher.
Mr Stirling, Secondary school for 4 years no idea what Yr that equates.
Interest in physics has never left.

His fav question was "What is the unit of power?"

There were always at least one that would get it wrong

He was also the best/worst at giving the strap. Yes old enough to have left school before it was discontinued.
A length of thick leather used at high velocity brought to a sudden stop on offenders palm, max of six strokes for any one offence.
I was no stranger to this, so knew which teacher not to piss off. The rest of them were laughable.

[Cholmondely]

Name any influential or controversial or otherwise interesting person? (Anyone who is not a professional entertainer/celebrity.) Just share the name of anyone you think we should know of who they are in case we ever find ourselves sitting beside them on a train... Offer as much or as little justification for why you think them interesting as you care to. I'll try to get the ball rolling with some obvious ones...

Richard Dawkins
Elon Musk
Bernie Sanders
Nicola Sturgeon

How many of these would you still wish to sit beside?

[Wildeblood]

...we should know of who they are in case we ever find ourselves sitting beside them on a train...

Richard Dawkins
Elon Musk
Bernie Sanders
Nicola Sturgeon

How many of these would you still wish to sit beside?

My answer now is the same as it would have been had anyone asked ten years ago: zero. What a loathsome bunch; it was probably just whom I'd seen on youtube that day.

I'll take this opportunity to expound on something else I wrote above, lest I be misunderstood. When I said I'd never read any of Asimov's sci-fi: I enjoyed his non-fiction writing, and thought he should have been better known for that, rather than being famous as an author of fiction.