Asimov had Aids!

Foxnews ^ | 3/12/02 | metacognate

[metacognate]

Asimov book reveals he died from AIDS By JAM! Books A forthcoming posthumous autobiography of Isaac Asimov reveals that the science fiction legend's death 10 years ago was due to AIDS, according to the New York Post.

Asimov, whose works include "I, Robot," reveals in "It's Been A Good Life" that he contracted the disease via tainted blood while undergoing a 1983 heart bypass operation.

The Post said Asimov's wife, Jane, compiled the new book from essays and notes her husband left behind when he died at 72.

[general_re]

I guess I still think that "Blade Runner" was okay, but only when considered on its own, as a thing unto itself. When you compare it to the book, it does fall flat. There were some scenes in the book that I would have liked to see in the movie also, like when Deckard gets hauled into the "other" police station.

If they end up doing another one, it'll be dark and depressing, I'm sure :-(

[Doctor Stochastic]

You really like Dick's pro-drug books? (Like Our Friends from Frolix 8). Or his anti-drug books? (Like Through a Scanner Darkly).

Dick is one of two SciFi authors that I kept when cleaning out the shelves. The other is Philip José Farmer.

[Doctor Stochastic]

I didn't find the movie even close (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.)

[general_re]

AIDS test---blood transfusion---wacky perverts---dirty old man!

Huh...whoa! Sorry about that, but I saw your handle as I was jumping threads and started trying to channel f.Christian for a moment, just to see what the future was like. It didn't work, though - it's a Tuesday night and I haven't had nearly enough to drink yet ;)

[<1/1,000,000th%]

The test for the virus itself has been available in Europe since around 1987. It was only a few years ago that the viral test was approved here.

It doesn't work well for the same reason that there isn't a vaccine for HIV. The virus is not free in the blood stream long enough to be detected. It appears to make its way directly into the macrophages once in the bloodstream. The binding sites on the virus that we use to detect it haven't changed since we launched the original test.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

LOL! I think you've got it!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Will Hollywood show the 4-inch aphids?

I always though that The Man in the High Castle would be a good movie. A Maze of Death might have been a good Twilight Zone.

[luvbach1]

Asimov was arguably the greatest science fiction writer of all time, closely followed by Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke

[general_re]

That's why I try to compartmentalize my feelings as much as possible. I like the movie, and I like the book, and it's only when I compare the two that I get cognitive dissonance problems ;)

[luvbach1]

Asimov left three volumes of memoirs, which I highly recommend. Here is Asimov on Old Age, from I. Asimov: I see what you mean, ah yes.

[altair]

There was no telepathy in Dune. The plotting revolved around use of the spice drug that allowed visions of possible futures.

[razorback-bert]

It was Richard Feynman, who worked on the bomb and his book on it was 'Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!' .

Now, who was it that worked with Asimov and Heinlein in the navy yard, Cifford Simak?

[RLK]

And though you survive yourself, you must watch death take away the world of your youth, little by little. There may be some morbid satisfaction to being a survivor, but is it so much better than death to be the last leaf on the tree, to find yourself alone in a strange and hostile world where no one remembers you as a boy, and where no one can share with you the memory of that long-gone world that glowed all about you when you were young?

---------------------------

One of the greatest and most sorrowful lessons I have learned with advancement of age is that you lose people, times, and places. Even those people you knew who do not die are so changed that they no longer exist.

[Dan Day]

I dislike that deceiver who got his books into the high school like "Well Spring of Life" that undermind God and man.

Feel free to point out anything in that book which you believe to be actually incorrect. We'll wait.

He's the Grandfather of Environmental Wacko's!

Excuse me??

I found nothing in Asimov's voluminous writings (either fiction *or* non-fiction) which seemed all that "environmentalist". Furthermore his trademark hard-headed skepticism would have considered today's environmentalist wackos to be the worst sort of fuzzy-headed overemotional morons.

Are you sure you've actually read anything by Asimov?

[Dan Day]

yup. Just another arrogant humanist who never learned a thing in his entire life.

May you someday come to know even a tenth of the amount of knowledge that Asimov knew well enough to teach to millions of others.

Your sort of transparently false cheap shot reflects far more on yourself than it does on Asimov.

[Dan Day]

He began as a marxist

Feel free to document this amazing assertion.

and ended up a democratic humanist

Not really, but if that's the only way you can cram him into a narrow, stereotypical mental pigeonhole of your choosing, I hope you find some comfort in it.

who liked the idea of philosopher kings, thought society could be organized and guided from above and the future predicted and controlled (somewhat).

And you got this from *what*, the fact that *one* of his science fiction works (the Foundation trilogy) contains such characters and events? None of his personal essays or non-fiction works supports your assertion that he subscribed to such beliefs himself.

You remind me of the parable of the blind men attempting to describe the elephant...

[Samwise]

Thank you! Now I can sleep.

deCamp was the third one.

[razorback-bert]

NO, thank you, I was going in circles trying to remember the third person.

[Samwise]

Now we can both sleep! :)