Issac Asimov’s “Lecture on Humanity” provides one with some quite interesting and entirely plausible predictions and insights into the 21st century; a century in which, I and my peers, are now intelligent members of. Ideals such as population control, educated views on racism, sexism, education and the notion that “people are stupid,” are but some of the major issues Asimov expresses to his audience and which I believe should be adhered to.
Asimov goes into depth about the importance of our earth and keeping it alive. Noting the decrease in temperature, he delves into possible solutions. The main solution he talks about is population control; mainly because of the reality of the fact that we may, at some point in any given time, run our resources dry. Seeing as this prediction has more or less come true, I personally, agree with his outlook on this situation. Through our advances in medicine, human birthrate has gone up while, simultaneously the death rate has decreased; resulting in a staggering 6.9 billion people populating this earth; all alive and all using up resources. Hard, though it may be, to convince the majority of the human population that it is humane and for the good of the world, to limit their number of children, it is a step that is necessary and should be taken. The earth is not a ball of just infinite resources, and in order to sustain life on this planet, sacrifices are needed.
Another interesting topic Asimov relates is that of a changed view on education. His main argument being that education should not be viewed as something to not have to do when you reach a certain age. It should be something to strive for all your life. “Whatever it is you do that makes you happy, and adds to the joyousness of the world, is justified.” I feel like, today especially, this outlook on education is almost or halfway achieved. Nowadays, in order to be successful, or what society has defined as success, one must attain a college degree (going along with the idea that “I can be whatever I want to be, as long as I try.”) This idea of education being extremely important has been instilled in me since I walked those first steps to kindergarten, as it has for most other people. More and older citizens are going back to college in order to achieve their lifelong dream, whatever it may be. This ideal is one that should, most definitely, continue to live on.
While at times Asimov’s lecture was serious in nature, the element of humor was not lost. Going into iffy topics, such as sexism and racism, Asimov’s anecdotes certainly lightened the overall heaviness of the topic. Memorable and entertaining, this reading was one that I will not easily forget. This, I think added to the overall lasting effect it had not only on me, but on doubtless others who have read or listened to this. It is a grand thing to be able to make a person laugh, and to do so with highly important world issues makes Asimov’s talent unmatched.
Using the story “The Man Who Awoke” by Lawrence Manning, Asimov exemplifies synoptic philosophy. In this story the main character realizes, after allowing himself to “sleep” for 5’000 years, how everything done, connects back to each other, as is the aim of synoptic philosophy (the love of wisdom emerging from a coherent understanding of everything together). As for the rest of the “lecture” one could call it Critical Analysis. Going deep into topics such as men on the moon, Asimov analyzes the situation, possible rejections of it, and solutions, as he does with almost every other topic mentioned in this lecture.
As B. Torre once said “I sincerely doubt that this world will ever see another individual even close to his abilities ever again.”
I agree with your ideas about education. I know that I was also instilled with the idea of how important education was ever since I was little and how essential an education has become to our current society.Education has really become a central part of a person's life in the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your view of the world's population. Although it is not a popular idea, some sort of regulation is needed. The world simply cannot support an inifinite number of people if it is a world of finite resources. Many will be against the idea (like that 19 and Counting family on TLC) but sacrifices must be made in this case.
ReplyDeleteWhen you comment about Asimov's thought about preserving the earth i think that we as people currently living on earth should do out best to preserve the planet. but i feel that in our minds we know that we need to preserve the earth but that does not show in our actions. we are still polluting even though we know that it is bad and we are still dumping chemicals into landfills even though we know that it may harm the earth or seep into our water supplies. i feel that we should strive to preserve this earth and even though we have good intentions we should turn those intentions into actions.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea of the expansion of continued education, and it is true that many more (and older) people do attend college today than have in the past. But I feel like Asimov's vision is not restricted to the collegiate. It must be retained through all times in life; the expansion of learning does not have to be restricted to periods purely devoted to study.
ReplyDeleteI agree and education has become such a great part of our humanity. But we still need to work on it a bit more because it's only allowed so some amount of older people only wanting to pursue what they didn't finish. They can't do something completely new...at least not yet 8D
ReplyDeleteIt is true that we should strive to be something for all of our lives, but that moral can be a bit of a double-edged sword.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, striving for a lifelong goal will make a person motivated, accomplished, and have them contribute to the world, working towards the ideal of education.
On the other hand, not everyone is able to succeed to the goals they set. With success in life, we have to accept failure as well. And if you dedicate your life towards your goal but can't succeed, then the effect is opposite. People can become frustrated, apathetic, and bitter when this system doesn't work out.
Striving for success is important, but the more important we make it in our lives, the riskier our happiness becomes.
I agree with your view on education. It should be a lifelong process, rather than ending when one graduates from high school, or even college. The learning process never ends - it accumulates over a lifetime. And eventually, the accumulation of education and critical analysis makes us wise and knowledgeable. That being said, the accumulation of knowledge can not be solely gathered in a classroom setting. Instead, one attains such knowledge by experiencing the different aspects that our world has to offer and conversing with others.
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