A fire-eater must eat fire even if he has to kindle it himself. - Isaac Asimov

Science Digest asked me to see the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind and write an article for them on the science it contained. I saw the picture and was appalled. I remained appalled even after a doctor's examination had assured me that no internal organs had been shaken loose by its ridiculous soundwaves. (If you can't be good, be loud, some say, and Close Encounters was very loud.) ... Hollywood must deal with large audiences, most of whom are utterly unfamiliar with good science fiction. It has to bend to them, meet them at least half-way. Fully appreciating that, I could enjoy Planet of the Apes and Star Wars. Star Wars was entertainment for the masses and did not try to be anything more. Leave your sophistication at the door, get into the spirit, and you can have a fun ride. ... Seeing a rotten picture for the special effects is like eating a tough steak for the smothered onions, or reading a bad book for the dirty parts. Optical wizardry is something a movie can do that a book can't but it is no substitute for a story, for logic, for meaning. It is ornamentation, not substance. In fact, whenever a science fiction picture is praised overeffusively for its special effects, I know it's a bad picture. Is that all they can find to talk about?

Ho sempre trovato interessante che nei racconti di fantascienza organismi dotati di intelligenza sovrumana vengano spesso presentati come freddi e crudeli. Suppongo sia una derivazione del tema dello "scienziato pazzo" e della convinzione che l'intelligenza, in se stessa sia malefica. Non mi stupisce veramente che una sensazione del genere possa nascere. Se vedeste qualcuno che sa qualcosa che voi non sapete e usa quella conoscenza per fare qualcosa che voi non potete – per esempio, riparare un'automobile –, può darsi che non vi piaccia la conseguente sensazione di inferiorità o di irrimediabile dipendenza. Potreste stringervi al cuore la nozione che l'ignoranza in realtà è meglio e che la gente comune è più simpatica. Ma perché gli scrittori di fantascienza contribuiscono tanto spesso alla diffusione di questa idea, quando in generale sono tanto intelligenti? Mi piacerebbe proprio saperlo

It seems to me that when it's time to die, there would be a certain pleasure in thinking that you had utilised your life well, learned as much as you could, gathered in as much as possible of the universe, and enjoyed it. There's only this one universe and only this one lifetime to try to grasp it. And while it is inconceivable that anyone can grasp more than a tiny portion of it, at least you can do that much. What a tragedy just to go through and get nothing out of it.