Isaac Asimov

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Isaac Asimov
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21 First Quotations from Isaac Asimov

chronoscopy n. 1956 I. Asimov Dead Past in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 7/1 Mr. Araman, I came to you because you’re top man in chronoscopy…I've come to you, sir, because for two years I have been trying to obtain permission to do some time viewing—chronoscopy, that is—in connection with my researches on ancient Carthage.
Frankenstein complex n. 1947 I. Asimov Little Lost Robot in Astounding Science Fiction Mar. 116/1 I’ll admit that this Frankenstein Complex you’re exhibiting has a certain justification—hence the First Law in the first place.
galactographic adj. 1950 I. Asimov …And Now You Don't in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 115/1 Nor were the galactographic verities of the situation lost upon Stettin.
galactography n. 1950 I. Asimov …And Now You Don’t in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 113/2 ‘Galactography,’ said the mayor, ‘is our greatest enemy. Our admirals make no secret of our almost hopeless, strategic position.’
gravitics n. 2 1982 I. Asimov Foundation’s Edge 54 I've been trained in space navigation, but not on these ships. If something goes wrong with the gravitics, I'm afraid there’s nothing I can do about it.
grounder n. 1952 I. Asimov The Martian Way in Galaxy Magazine Nov. 35/2 They wouldn’t like it. The Grounders, I mean. They’re so used to their own lousy little world, they wouldn’t appreciate what it’s like to float and look down on Saturn.
gynoid n. 1979 I. Asimov Editorial: The Vocabulary of SF in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Sept. 8 Strictly speaking, an android should be an artificial device with the appearance of a male human being. One with the appearance of a female human being would be a ‘gynoid’, from the Greek word ‘gynos’ meaning ‘woman’. However, I have never seen the word ‘gynoid’ used for any artificial device of human appearance. ‘Android’ is used for artificial devices that mimic either sex—or, for that matter, that are neuter.
humanoid n. 1940 I. Asimov Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 118/1 I have here…the official report from Alpha Centauri, on whose fifth planet the Humanoids of Sol have landed.
humanoid adj. 1940 I. Asimov Homo Sol in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 118/1 Beings of every manlike type and shape were there. Some were tall and polelike, some broad and burly, some short and stumpy. There were those with long, wiry hair, those with scanty gray fuzz covering head and face, others with thick, blond curls piled high, and still others entirely bald. Some possessed long, hair-covered trumpets of ears, others had tympanum membranes flush with their temples. There were those present with large gazellelike eyes of a deep-purple luminosity, others with tiny optics of a beady black. There was a delegate with green skin, one with an eight-inch proboscis and one with a vestigial tail. Internally, variation was almost infinite. But all were alike in two things. They were all Humanoid. They all possessed intelligence.
jump v. 1952 I. Asimov Currents of Space in Astounding Science Fiction Oct. 67/2 It’s different in different places and we have to know exactly what it is in order to allow ships to calculate exactly how to jump through hyperspace.
Law of Robotics n. 1944 I. Asimov Catch That Rabbit in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 165/2 If your analysis were correct, Dave would have to break down the First Law of Robotics: That a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to be injured.
neuronic adj. 1942 I. Asimov The Hazing in Thrilling Wonder Stories Oct. 90/2 It held a ‘neuronic whip,’ that pleasant little weapon that paralyzes the vocal cords and twists nerves into so many knots of agony.
pseudo-grav n. 1952 I. Asimov Martian Way in Galaxy Science Fiction Nov. 36/1 Then you would have to hike the pseudo-grav field of your suit and come down.
psychohistory n. 1942 I. Asimov Foundation in Astounding Science-Fiction May 42/1 After the Fall will come inevitable barbarism, a period which, our psychohistory tells us, should…last from thirty to fifty thousand years.
robotical adj. 1940 I. Asimov Strange Playfellow in Super Science Stories Sept. 75/1 The ‘talking Robot’ as a scientific achievement left much to be desired. It sprawled its unwieldy mass of wires and coils through twenty-five square yards, and every robotical function had been subordinated to vital attribute of speech. It worked,—and was in this respect quite a victory—but as yet, it could translate only the simpler and more concrete thoughts into words.
roboticist n. 1942 I. Asimov Robot AL-76 Goes Astray in Amazing Stories Feb. 223/1 There was even talk of a Congressional investigation, though every reputable Roboticist and Mathematical Physicist on Earth swore the robot was harmless.
robotics n. 1941 I. Asimov Liar! in Astounding Science-Fiction May 53/1 There’s irony in three of the greatest experts in robotics in the world falling into the same elementary trap, isn’t there?
science-fictionish adj. 1940 I. Asimov Letter in Future Fiction Mar. 108 I don’t like the cover. First, it is not sufficiently science-fictionish.
space-based adj. 1956 I. Asimov Naked Sun in Astounding Science Fiction Nov. 113/1 Try getting rid of me against my will and you'll be looking down the throats of space-based artillery.
teleport v. 2 1944 I. Asimov Big & the Little in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 19/2 Teleported direct from the capital.
Vegan n. 2 1942 I. Asimov Black Friar of the Flame in Planet Stories Spring 22/2 Sanat wriggled in the grasp of the two Lhasinuic soldiers. ‘Tell them to let go,’ he cried in the Vegan tongue. ‘I am unarmed.’ ‘Speak,’ ordered the admiral in English. ‘They do not understand your language.’ Then, in Lhasinuic to the soldiers, ‘Shoot when I give the word.’