Some of my favorite Asimov stories:
Profession:
abelard.org/asimov.htm
The Last Question:
multivax.com/last_question.html
The Last Answer:
destructionoverdrive.blogspot.co … simov.html
Nightfall:
Could only find audio, escapepod.org/2007/04/05/ep100-nightfall/
Probably most relevant to this folder is not a story, but a speech, amazing nonetheless. It was delivered to an American Humanist Association dinner in 1989, and discusses primarily the need for global cooperation and maybe global government that arises from the threat of global warming. Along the way Asimov compares the United Nations in its current state to the congress before the Constitution (operating on articles of confederation), which I thought was a pretty apt analogy.
Maybe of interest to Xunzian is that one of the things Asimov so elegantly claims to be true of nations is also true of individual societies, people, and still smaller, individual cells. Specifically, that it doesn’t matter which person has more money, which society more power, or (stretching it here) which cell more nutrients, if the higher system (nation, society, or organism) is destroyed, because then they all bite the dust equally.
Anyway, pretty poignant speech, and definitely looking into the future. Hope it gives someone something to think about.
youtube.com/watch?v=LO0sCs8jI4k
youtube.com/watch?v=TpHPQCnHHl4