For a full day he had checked and rechecked equations and relationships in a rattling uncertainty, mixed with growing excitement and a bitter gratitu… - Isaac Asimov

You know that prudery is only the other side of prurience. The words are even on the same page in the dictionary.

Science fiction may be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the response of human beings to advances in science and technology. Actual change in science and technology, occurring quickly enough and striking deeply enough to affect a human being in the course of his normal lifetime, is a phenomenon peculiar to the world only since the Industrial Revolution ... The first well-known writer who responded to this new factor in human affairs by dealing regularly with science fiction, by studying the effect of additional scientific advance upon mankind ... was Jules Verne. In the English language, the early master was H. G. Wells. Between them, they laid the foundation for every theme upon which science fiction writers have been ringing variations ever since.

nadie utilizó la palabra «robot» hasta 1920 (casualmente el año en que yo nací). Aquel año, un dramaturgo checo, Karel Capek, escribió la obra R.U.R., sobre un inglés, Rossum, que fabricaba seres humanos artificiales en cantidad. Éstos estaban destinados a realizar las labores arduas de la Tierra, de forma que los seres humanos reales pudiesen vivir placentera y confortablemente sus vidas.