[Scully]

With the years this line has become ever more poignant to me. After all, an old person to one who has known him a long time is not an "old person" but is much more likely to be thought of as the younger person who inhabits our memory, vigorous and vibrant. When an old person dies who has been a part of your life, it is part of your youth that dies. 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?

Oh I don't know, LarryLied...this beautiful bit of creativity suggests that Asimov did indeed learn a few things in his lifetime.

[LarryLied]

I was too rough on Asimov. I'm sure he was a good guy with the best of intentions. Some of his admirers are with whom I have a problem. If don't like AI, you are stupid. He was the smartest person in the whole wide world. Makes me cringe. Too many follow people because they think them to be more intelligent than most. We see it with Clinton and Chomsky devotees. I don't get it. Lots of things more important than intelligence.