that was a great movie, very Ray Bradbury/Isaac Asimov like.

>> ^Deano:
It would be nice to see a new version of this story without any hint of Will Smith of course.


Oh, Hells no.

Welcome to Earthf!

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by Deano:
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"This Day All Gods Die" - Stephen R. Donaldson (Last of the Gap series)
"Enchantment" - Orson Scott Card
"Stars Like Dust" - Isaac Asimov

All fantastic so far.

Awaiting:
"Against All Things Ending" - Stephen R. Donaldson (2nd to last in "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever")
"Green" - Ted Dekker

It is important to note that Tyson has distanced himself from the controversial 2006 IAU decision, which he himself admits is flawed. At this point, he even admits that the debate is not over, that it might be too early in the study of planetary scientists for anyone to be defining what a planet is in the first place. This was pretty much his message at the Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate, which he moderated at the American Museum of Natural History on March 10, 2009.

Significantly, only four percent of the IAU voted on Pluto's demotion, and most are not planetary scientists. Their decision was immediately rejected by hundreds of professional astronomers led by Dr. Alan Stern, Principal Investigator of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto.

This debate is far from over. For another perspective, anyone interested in this topic should read "Is Pluto A Planet" by Dr. David Weintraub.

Only if he follows some rules first.

media whore seems a tad harsh, simply because he enjoys being more of a theorist.

where would you place isaac asimov?

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clark
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
The Stars my Destination - Alfred Bester
The Martian Chronicles - Ray Bradbury
A High Wind in Jamaica - Richard Hughes
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Call of the Wild - Jack London

This list is the product of a few moments of reflection. I read many of these books when I was young but their subject matter combined with where I was in my life left me with indelible memories.

Also, the people above me have good taste.

*The Stars My Destination (Tiger! Tiger!) - Alfred Bester

*The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov

*On the Road - Jack Kerouac

*Zadig or Fate - Voltaire

*Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Honorable mention: The Forever War - Joe Haldeman

1. Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke

2. Hamlet - Bill Shakespeare

3. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

4. The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

5. Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

honorable mention to The Left Hand of the Electron by Isaac Asimov, and The Dictionary

I've read so many great books that it's really hard for me to whittle it down to five that I think are the best, so I'm going to go with the first five that come into my head. I'm guessing that the first five must have made the greatest impression on me, so it's a reasonable place to start a favorites list.

1. Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut is probably the single most influential author to me. His protagonists and story lines always clicked with me. It was like he was writing them just for me.

2. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. Everyone's heard of this one, and it's considered by many to be one of the best novels of the 20th century. If you haven't read it yet, put it next on your to-read list. Notice my first two novels are both set in World War II. I don't know if that means anything or not.

3. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Michael Chabon. Considered by many to be Chabon's greatest work. I noticed you read one of his book's, dag. I think you owe it to yourself to read this one. I plan on reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union soon, because I've heard good things about it too.

4. The Trial - Franz Kafka. A dark novel, to say the least. To me it's about the absurdity of life and accepting fate. I don't believe in fate, but I sometimes wonder about the futility of existence. Can't help it.

5. The Foundation series - Isaac Asimov. Read the series when I was a teenager. The idea of being able to use science to not only predict but also control future events fascinated me, and that it was set in the future, complete with space travel, made it even more interesting. I liked how Asimov later was able to merge the Foundation series with the Robot series.

Other novels worthy of mention:

- Tropic Of Cancer - Henry Miller - Almost made the Top 5
- Life of Pi - Yann Martel
- Galapagos - Kurt Vonnegut
- Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Breakfast Of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
- 1984 - George Orwell
- Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
- God Knows - Joseph Heller
- Something Happened - Joseph Heller
- Ringworld - Larry Niven
- The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics come to mind.

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 given 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.

Some decent action scenes in this flick but I won't even get into how shabbily done the movie was translated from Isaac Asimov's work + the original screenplay for it, in his own words, "The first truely adult science-fiction film.", which this was not. Not to mention all the advertisements. The image of (thanks to Maddox) Will Smith pissing on an ad-riddled Isaac Asimov's grave always pops into my head whenever I see this now.