Nightfall
These two renowned writers have invented a world not unlike our own--a world on the edge of chaos, torn between the madness of religious fanaticism and the stubborn denial of scientists. Only a handful of people on the planet Lagash are prepared to face the truth--that their six suns are setting all at once for the first time in 2,000 years, signaling the end of civilization!
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35recommend
78mentions
70people
2009–2026years
45% recommend53% neutral3% critical
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What Hacker News says
- Asimov and Feynman also spoke about similar things (along with many others)
In 1980, Asimov famously wrote The Cult of Ignorance[0], criticizing the rise of anti-intellectualism. Where there was a strong political push of "don't trust the experts". He criticizes claims that sound familiar today "America has a right to know" on the basis of this being meaningless without literacy. He clarifies that literacy is far more than being able to actually read words on a page, but to interpret and process them. Asimov isn't being pretentious, his definition is consistent with how we determine reading levels[2] and his critique would be that most people do not have that of a Freshman in High School. Hell, it is even in his fiction! It is even in The Foundation and is literally the premise of Profession[3].
Feynman is a bit more scattered, but I think his discussion about the education system in Brazil (in the 50's) says a lot[4]. He talks a lot about how the students could recite the equations, ace all the tests, and achieve everything that looks to be, at least on paper, perfectly academic; but how the students did not really have the deeper understanding of the equations. It is a discussion about literacy. Were he around today I'm sure he'd use the phrase "metric hacking". Anyone that knows Feynman may also be thinking about his Cargo Cult Science[5](a commencement speech at Cal Tech (1974)). This is where his famous quote
comes from. But there is a lot of important context surrounding this and it is worth knowing about.The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that.[0] Note: 1980 was an election year, and one with a sweeping victory...[1] https://people.bath.ac.uk/mnsbr/papers/Asimov-Newsweek-Janua...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_United_States_presidentia...
[2] https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/reading/achieve.aspx
[3] Profession has been in discussion lately, directly relating to this topic. If you haven't read it I'll say it is one of my favorite's of his. Not as good as Foundation but up there with Nightfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profession_(novella)
[4] https://enlightenedidiot.net/random/feynman-on-brazilian-edu...
[5] https://sites.cs.ucsb.edu/~ravenben/cargocult.html
[Edit]
I wanted to add Asimov's The Relativity of Wrong. Sometimes I feel it should be required reading before arguing on the internet. I find myself coming back to read it at least once a year
- Ha!
I did not know about this. Arthur C Clarke was indeed my favourite at that time (even now).
Asimov, however, killed it with his two goosebump-good shorts, Nightfall and Last Question.
- Even being unable to see the eclipse live, I felt compelled to read Nightfall again, yesterday.
One of the things I appreciate about Asimov as a scifi author is that he never goes too deeply into explaining the science or physics of his novels (no technobabbles or midichlorians), he is more interested in the Big Ideas and characters.
I'm not sure that a world like Kalgash can exist, and many details about the story could be nitpicked to death, but it doesn't make it any less fascinating and complelling.
- Asimov and Silverberg's Nightfall novel seems related- a great sci-fi story about a civilization on an alien planet that isn't prepared for the long cycle of astronomical movements (they go crazy during an eclipse every 2000 years or so). Fun read :)
- Asimov and Silverberg confused me for a moment - Nightfall was an Asimov-only short story from 1941. Still think it's one of his best. TIL there was a collaborative novel as well, which carried on after the events of the short story.
* * *
If you like novels that explore civilisations that have long astronomical cycles, the other classic is the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss. It's set in a double star system where the main planetary orbit takes 2500 Earth years, and the seasons last for Earth centuries. Civilisation tends to collapse when winter comes, but gradually approaches semi-industrial levels of technology by autumn.
- In addition to the other comments, "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov also covers a similar topic, especially in the full-length novel (though I prefer the short story).
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