Este volumen recopila los artículos que Isaac Asimov escribió entre 1974 y 1980 acerca de cuestiones relacionadas con el porvenir humano y contiene 71 visiones del futuro, posibles pero no inevitables, concebibles pero no predeterminadas, en las que el gran divulgador cientifico y excelente novelista expone las sorprendentes y fantasticas perspectivas que abren los avances cientificos y tecnologicos de nuestra epoca.
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 orders givein to 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. With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future--a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete. Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world--all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov's trademark.
Si Opus 100 (LB 1141) daba cuenta de los primeros 99 libros dados por Isaac Asimov a la imprenta, Opus 200 ofrece una coherente selección de extractos de los segundos 99 títulos del gran escritor y divulgador, ordenados en quince campos tematicos (Astronomia, Robots, Matematicas, Fisica, Quimica, Biologia, Palabras, Historia, la Biblia, Textos breves, Humor, Ciencias Sociales, Literatura, Misterio y Autobiografia) y enriquecidos por introducciones y comentarios.
When the First Foundation was conquered by a force Seldon had not foreseen - the overwhelming power of a single individual, a mutant called the Mule - the second Foundation was forced to reveal its existence and, infinitely worse, a portion of its power. One man understood the shifting patterns of the inhabited cosmos. This was Hari Seldon, the last great scientist of the First Empire. The mathematics of psychohistory enabled Seldon to predict the collapse of the Empire and the onset of an era of chaos and war. To restore civilization in the shortest possible time, Seldon set up two Foundations. The First was established on Terminus in the full daylight of publicity. But the Second, "at the other end of the galaxy", took shape behind a veil of total silence. Because the Second Foundation guards the laws of psychohistory, which are valid only so long as they remain secret. So far the second Foundation's location, its most closely guarded secret of all, has been kept hidden. The Mule and the remnants of the First Foundation will do anything to discover it. This is the story of the Second Foundation.
