Skip to main content

isaac asimov - Story about the scientists in Mars that are less cooperative than the scientists of Earth


I am trying to remember the name of a story detective story. In the story detective from earth sent to Mars in order to investigate something (murder?)and he need cooperation from the local scientists community. He figured out that the scientists in Mars that are less cooperative in their research than the scientists of Earth that tend to collaborate much more frequently. If i recall correctly it has something about the longer lifespan of the people in Mars.


I am pretty sure that this is an Asimov story.



Answer



If you are sure this is an Asimov story then it sounds very like The Naked Sun. This is a good match in everything except the location as it is set on the planet Solaris not Mars.


The detective, Elijah Baley, is sent to Solaris to investigate a murder. Compared to Earth, which has become very crowded, the Solarians live lives of luxury with thousands of robot attendants to take care of their every need. They also have lifetimes much longer than Terrans, though I don't think the details are discussed. The impact of the long lives is specifically referred as you describe by Baley when he is reporting back to his boss at the end of the investigation:




“I believe I know the weaknesses of the Solarians, sir.”


“You can answer my question? Good. Go ahead.”


“Their weaknesses, sir, are their robots, their low population, their long lives.”


Minnim stared at Baley without any change of expression. His hands worked in jerky finger-drawn designs along the papers on his desk. He said, “Why do you say that?”


Baley had spent hours organizing his thoughts on the way back from Solaria; had confronted officialdom, in imagination, with balanced, well-reasoned arguments. Now he felt at a loss. He said, “I’m not sure I can put them clearly.”


“No matter. Let me hear. This is first approximation only.”


Baley said, “The Solarians have given up something mankind has had for a million years; something worth more than atomic power, cities, agriculture, tools, fire, everything; because it's something that made everything else possible.”


“I don’t want to guess, Baley. What is it?”


“The tribe, sir. Cooperation between individuals. Solaria has given it up entirely. It is a world of isolated individuals and the planet's only sociologist is delighted that this is so. That sociologist, by the way, never heard of sociomathematics, because he is inventing his own science. There is no one to teach him, no one to help him, no one to think of something he himself might miss.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

the lord of the rings - Why is Gimli allowed to travel to Valinor?

Gimli was allowed to go to Valinor despite not being a ring bearer. Is this explained in detail or just with the one line "for his love for Galadriel"? Answer There's not much detail about this aside from what's said in Appendix A to Return of the King: We have heard tell that Legolas took Gimli Glóin's son with him because of their great friendship, greater than any that has been between Elf and Dwarf. If this is true, then it is strange indeed: that a Dwarf should be willing to leave Middle-earth for any love, or that the Eldar should receive him, or that the Lords of the West should permit it. But it is said that Gimli went also out of desire to see again the beauty of Galadriel; and it may be that she, being mighty among the Eldar, obtained this grace for him. More cannot be said of this matter. And Appendix B: Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf . And when that sh

fan fiction - Does the Interdict of Merlin appear in original Harry Potter canon?

In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky a concept called the ' Interdict of Merlin ' appears: (all emphasis added) Chapter 23: His hand on the doorknob, Harry Potter already inside and waiting, wearing his cowled cloak. "The ancient first-year spells," Harry Potter said. "What did you find?" "They're no more powerful than the spells we use now." Harry Potter's fist struck a desk, hard. "Damn it. All right. My own experiment was a failure, Draco. There's something called the Interdict of Merlin -" Draco hit himself on the forehead, realizing. "- which stops anyone from getting knowledge of powerful spells out of books, even if you find and read a powerful wizard's notes they won't make sense to you, it has to go from one living mind to another. I couldn't find any powerful spells that we had the instructions for but couldn't cast. But if you can't get them out of old books,

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir