An Anniversary

1959

In March of 2016, I blogged about an Edward Smith novel called The Galaxy Primes. That story originally appeared in the magazine Amazing Science Fiction Stories, starting in the March 1959 issue (download here). A few months ago I blogged about the first published story by Isaac Asimov (1939), "Marooned Off Vesta".

During the 20 years between 1939 and 1959, Asimov went on to earn a Ph.D. in biochemistry, briefly serve in the military during World War II and publish many more science fiction stories (including his Foundation Saga and a series of positronic robot stories). Asimov's "day job" was as a university professor, but eventually he was able to become a full-time writer.

New (1959) interior art by Virgil Finlay. Part of the 1959 letter from Asimov (click image to enlarge).

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By a trick of publisher's time travel, the first part of The Galaxy Primes and "Marooned Off Vesta" ended up being published together in the March 1959 issue of Amazing. Immediately following the re-printed "Marooned Off Vesta" was a new story by Asimov called "Anniversary".

"Anniversary" is set 20 years after the events of "Marooned Off Vesta". The three men who had been marooned off Vesta get together and make an amazing discovery. In my previous comments about "Marooned Off Vesta" I made the point that:

 Early science fiction stories like "Marooned off Vesta" completely failed to anticipate the role that computers and robots would play in space exploration.

original cover art by William Dold

Sadly, Asimov did not make computers or robots central to "Anniversary". The technological gizmo at the center of attention in "Anniversary" is called the "anopticon", a device that has no lenses but can function as both a telescope and a microscope. However, in the story, Asimov did depict people using the equivalent of the internet and "googling" a computerized database for information.

Asmosis

Asimov imagined a future in which computing machines would become powerful and ubiquitous, but would be kept under control by thoughtfully designed programming. When Moore, Brandon and Shae try to dig into Multivac's database in search of other people's private data, they are rebuffed.

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In the Ekcolir Reality, the Writer's Block was very aggressive about passing information from the Hierion Domain to science fiction writers on Earth. According to Yōd, Ivory Fersoni has found evidence in the library of past Realities at Observer Base that the "anoptikon" became a popular "future technology" device in science fiction stories of the Ekcolir Reality. In one such story, the seemingly magical ability of the anoptikon to magnify tiny objects was used to make possible the discovery of femtobots on Earth.

Next: "The Golden Helix" by Ted Sturgeon (1954)

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