Asimov was a professor of Biochemistry at Boston University.
This book (1965) indicates that Boston University had a IBM 650-- sold as a " Magnetic Drum Data-Processing Machine*, and Harvard had both the 650 and a Univac-1.
Perhaps Asimov’s access to his universities computer was strictly mediated by a “high priesthood”, and a simple simulation of Thiotimoline’s solubility would not have gotten him more than a few printed pages of output, – if his request was approved by a committee.
In the “Franchise”-- we don’t actually see the computer at work. There may not be any computer, and it may all be a cover for a bureaucracy that makes its decisions and calculations the old fashioned way.
Ahh, the gold days of sci-fi before people knew what was going to happen with computers. Of course they would get bigger and bigger each year, until the powerful ones filled whole moons or planets. Meanwhile the dashing space pirates would navigate by the stars with their slide rules, because of course you couldn’t fit something as big as a computer on a space rocket!
If you have ever read early space opera like the Lensman books you would believe it. FTL spaceships. Instant communication across hundreds of light years. Ray guns that can destroy buildings. And everyone still uses slide rules.
The concept of even a modern pocket calculator seemed implausible at the time.
Asimov’s Seldon supposedly carried a small, hand-held computer that was eerily like my old HP-35, complete with a gray case and glowing red numbers. This was mentioned in “The Mathematician,” the first story in the Foundation books (which was written after the rest of the pre-1980’s stories were written as an introduction, by request of the editor).
More anecdata than science, but my confirmation bias tells me it’s good and assures me it’s worth sharing in this here thread.
Fair warning: some of the quotes are cringe-worthy in that special way that only college freshman philosophy 101 students can cringe.
My students’ experience of cell phones and the social-media platforms they support may not be exhaustive, or statistically representative. But it is clear that these gadgets made them feel less alive, less connected to other people and to the world, and less productive. They also made many tasks more difficult and encouraged students to act in ways they considered unworthy of themselves. In other words, phones didn’t help them. They harmed them.
This part really resonated with me, though, especially that last bit. Over the last 6-12 months I’ve tried to take a more deliberate approach to my media consumption, and have been using this proposition as a practical heuristic to guide my choices: avoid the infinite-scroll Skinner box.
Which means I’ve removed the Twitter client from my phone, as well as a couple other newsfeed-like apps that you could essentially just scroll forever. I still have a Twitter account; I just don’t use it on my phone, which, in practice, means I hardly ever use it at all. And that’s OK.
I’m not sure if it makes a real difference, or not, but day-to-day I can definitely tell it’s making some difference, even if only to show me how hard my phone was creeping on me, before. For example, I’ll check my email and catch myself scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and scrolling, and subconsciously expecting something new to appear there. And I have to remind myself: email doesn’t work like that. heh.
I found this bit a good sign of how we’ve changed:
even the simplest activities—getting on the bus or train, ordering dinner, getting up in the morning, even knowing where they were—required their cell phones. As the phone grew more ubiquitous in their lives, their fear of being without it seemed to grow apace. They were jittery, lost, without them.
[…]
Without cell phones life would be simple and real but we may not be able to cope with the world and our society.
I got a new phone last year and I’m pretty happy with it. These are the apps I have:
Google authenticator and Keepass so I can log into stuff when needed
My banks so I can check balance, transfer funds, lock cards, deposit checks when needed
My internet and phone providers so I can check and restore service when needed
A journaling app to mark each day on a scale from Awful to Awesome with a note for mindfulness
Two tarot apps for creative inspiration
Lyft, Google Maps, and Life 360 for traveling
Slack, Discord, and Messenger Lite for messaging with coworkers, acquaintances, and friends and family
3 light games to pass time while waiting
Gmail
Youtube (only used for streaming music videos to TV)
No social media, nothing that gives me notifications except the messengers. Almost everything is a utility that I only use when I need to. Nothing to draw me out of the moment and distract my focus. That leaves me sometimes instinctively pulling out my phone and … having nothing to do with it, putting it back in my pocket to watch the birds and squirrels instead (or whatever). I like that. I feel more in-the-moment and alive.
But there aren’t payphones everywhere anymore, and I need my family to be able to reach me. Also the reason I first got a smartphone was for the maps after getting lost in an unfamiliar city and walking an hour out of my way before I found a street I recognized. As a teen, that wouldn’t have mattered, but as an adult it’s different and I’m often in places I haven’t explored. So I still kind of feel the necessity of having one, even if I don’t like it being a necessity and try to minimize that.
We were at a neighborhood party the other night. At one point I sat in on a conversation mostly between a recent college grad and an older fellow who’d been a soccer coach for the student in high school. It was interesting (and a little disturbing) how the young person kept looking at her phone every few minutes.
And every now and then when out with friends my age, the conversation will pause and two or three of them will take out their phones. I find it strange. I hate taking my phone anywhere, as it’s an unpleasant bulge in my pocket. Grocery store (to allow last minute additions), doctors’ appointments to pass the time during the inevitable wait — that’s about it. It does seem to be a fundamental change in how people operate, for good or bad. I’m voting for the latter.
I agree. We were just on a family trip in other countries, so my ‘kids’ (all adults) kept their phones on Airplane Mode the entire time, which means unless we were somewhere with wifi, they couldn’t use their phones for anything like social media, and they were perfectly fine with that. I was the one who added an international plan for the duration. We needed the maps; we needed the transportation apps I already had, to figure out how to get around, plus we ended up downloading a new one – Grab (like Uber or Lyft) – because the taxis in one country were notorious for overcharging; we needed the weather info; we needed the hours and directions to museums and other points of interest; we needed the ability to translate between English and a dozen different languages; etc. etc. Plus, of course I had to be reachable for work reasons, although to everyone’s credit, they honored the fact I was on a family trip and rarely contacted me. Probably because I put the fear of god into them about the time zone issue.
I used the opportunity to remind the kids of what it used to be like, traveling with no lifeline. If you got lost, you got lost. If you got screwed by a taxi driver, what could you do? I’ll take 21st century technology instead, thankyouverymuch!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely in the pro-having-a-smartphone camp. I was a late adopter, but I can’t imagine not having one, now. I’m also the kind of person that takes it with me everywhere, and it feels weird if I’m out and realize I don’t have it on me (although I do occasionally deliberately leave it at home). I’m pretty good about not using it in face-to-face social situations, though.
I think the thing about my initial post (and the linked article) is the use of “phone” as a sort of shorthand for “all the communication and media apps (social, or otherwise)” on our phones. We kind of forget about our phones precisely because they’re always around, they sort of fade into the background of our awareness. So when I realize I don’t have my phone on me and freak out, the loss I (and the students who gave up their phones) feel is about the loss of all the things we can do with our phones, for good or ill.
Personally, I feel like I’ve had a poor balance between the good and the ill and am trying to be more deliberate about managing that going forward. Which wasn’t necessarily clear from what I wrote.
I totally agree about the utility of having a phone, especially for travel. I’ll take 21st century technology, as well, albeit a fair bit more reluctantly.
I suppose I’d be more enthusiastic if I felt like 21st century technology companies were building products for consumers, instead of for the benefit of advertisers, or other corporations, or governments, etc. We live in a time of so much potential with this stuff, but the incentives are all wrong, so everything is essentially adversarial at some level, and the whole thing is just exhausting.
