Soarele gol |
Previously, in The Caves of Steel, Asimov had introduced Detective Baley and Daneel, a humanoid robot. In The Naked Sun, Baley and Daneel go to the planet Solaria and try to solve a murder mystery. Solaria is a world where robots do all the work and just a few humans live on large estates, each living in almost complete isolation from other people.
interior art for The Naked Sun |
In The Naked Sun, Asimov introduces readers to a new character Gladia (see the first 3 illustrations on this page). Solarians seldom meet face-to-face, but they view other people by means of holographic images. Gladia is having her hair done by one of her robots when Baley calls to chat. She has not bothered to get dressed because this is "only viewing".
interior art by Henry Van Dongen |
interior art by Henry Van Dongen |
interior art by Henry Van Dongen |
As a spoiled reader from 2020, the illustrations in Astounding for The Naked Sun do not seem very inspired. The klunky robotic servants drawn by Henry Van Dongen don't strike me as being the sort of devices that anyone would have as their household servants.
As a biology nerd, what I found most interesting in The Naked Sun is the genetic engineering that Asimov imagined to be taking place on the planet Solaria. Asimov suggested that the Solarians routinely analyzed every protein in every Solarian as part of a comprehensive human breeding projet. In 1953, the amino acid sequence of the insulin protein had been determined, so it was not unreasonable for Asimov to imagine a future time when complete proteome sequencing might become routine.
I like to watch. Interior art by Henry Van Dongen |
back to the future |
Three Laws
Asimov's imaginary positronic robots have built-in safety features: the three laws of robotics, the first of which is "A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm." However, in The Naked Sun, Asimov describes how robots on Solaria spank the children. The Solarian roboticists have weakened the first law, allowing robots to punish children "for their own good". The evil roboticist in the story is even planning to make robotic spaceships that will mistakenly believe that during a war they are only destroying other robotic spaceships, not spaceships containing humans from rival planets.
a red-shirted Solarian |
What the meaning of
Solarian robots are also programmed with the prejudices of the Solarians and to treat Earthlings as inferiors. Asimov later came back to this idea in his 1986 novel Foundation and Earth. I love the idea of a writer who can pick up an old story idea after thirty years and run with it. In this case, the xenophobic Solarians have been quietly carrying out their human genetic engineering program for close to 50,000 years.
For me, I love what Asimov did in Foundation and Earth, uniting his Foundation and robot stories. It was fun for me to see the ancient origins of Fallom in The Naked Sun.
Mystery
in the Ekcolir Reality |
After publishing The Naked Sun, Asimov entered into a new phase of his writing career during which he pretty much went out of the Sci Fi novel writing business, continued writing short Sci Fi stories and wrote many non-fiction books. Many of Asimov's non-fiction books were about physics, but in 1962 Asimov published a book about the genetic code and in 1963 he published The Human Brain. Asimov then published a novelization of Fantastic Voyage, so apparently someone thought he should still be writing novels. The Gods Themselves slipped out in 1972. Eventually, late in his life, Asimov did return to writing more science fiction novels, but he was taken from us too soon. I like to think that Asimov might have written another novel about Gladia's first years on Aurora and her relationship with Jander.
Psionics
whatever psionics is, that's entertainment |
editorial, June 1956 Astounding |
Image from Campbell's psionics article, June 1956 Astounding. Campbell warned readers to ignore mystics when investigating psionics; after-all, Jesus had been unable to tell Peter how to walk on water. |
Campbell was trying to sell magazines and he wanted to entertain his nerdy audience. In that June issue, Campbell published a picture of a "Hieronymous Machine". Designed by Thomas Hieronymus, the device was claimed to detect a new form of radiation, "eloptic energy", some mysterious hybrid electrical-optical signal emitted by all material substances. While expressing doubts about Hieronymus' "theory", Campbell built a version of the "detector" and reported that it did seem to detect something.
walking on water
source |
I have a lot of fun in my Exode Saga writing about a character named "Thomas" who annoys Isaac Asimov by trying to get Asimov to read his crazy story about alien visitors to Earth. Also, in the Exode Saga, there are mysterious particles called "hierions" that can be used for sending telepathic signals. I'm not trying to mock Campbell or Hieronymus... I'm just trying to have fun imagining: what if some of Campbell's fantasies about psionics were true? I have the feeling that Asimov had no patience for Campbell's pseudo-scientific yearnings and that may have contributed to Asimov getting out of the Sci Fi novel publishing business for a while.
Review |
Lucky for we readers, Asimov did eventually write some fun novels about Daneel and his telepathic powers.
Related Reading: celebrating 100 years of Asimov
Confidence |
Dianetics - another fake science scam provided to Astounding readers by Campbell
Daneel - Asimov's telepathic puppet master of the all-human galaxy
Related Reading: the Dean Drive
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