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On the topic of sci-fi’s I really like books written by scientists turned writers because I find the world building to be much more compelling, interesting and logically consistent. Recently I enjoyed [this]. Especially the concepts of psychohistory and dark ages.
— Andrej Karpathy
2016-11 on quorasessionwithandrejkarpathy.quora.com
Asimov’s foundation series is an achievement nearly on the scale of Tolkien’s universe but despite its grandness in space/time I found the Foundation hard to enjoy. There are plenty of beautiful themes: an intriguing discipline of mathematical sociology (psychohistory) capable of predicting the statistical development of societies on scales of centuries, the political power of technology, religion and trade, practical pacifist overtones, and the series’ historical significance in inspiring the universes of Star Trek, Star Wars, or Hitchiker’s Guide is clear. And yet, I believe the book falls victim to its aspirations of grandeur: it over-reaches and ultimately results in three loosely tied stories featuring underdeveloped characters, a lot of pointless chatter, an unsatisfying and anticlimactic ending, and other hard-to-stomach space opera features. The latter in particular is a frequent source of stress in my science fiction dabbling: The setting is tens of thousands of years in the future but the societies are indistinguishable from 1950s: people talk to each other in person and they smoke tobacco. Everything is left untouched except for atomic trinkets and hyperdrives. I ordinarily attribute these features to nothing short of intellectual laziness. If you enjoy stories spanning huge galactic space/time intervals, wish to get tickled by an amusing space fortune telling story and don’t require your sci-fi too hard then you might enjoy this book. For my tastes this is inadequate - somewhere between 2/5 or 3/5, and I’ll round up to 3/5 our of general appreciation for Asimov’s general achievement that this is part of. 3/5
— Andrej Karpathy
2016-05-15 on goodreads.com
Incredible first chapters and macro world building. Love the concept of psychohistory and story arch. Disliked the societies that are indistinguishable from 1950s as they quabble with each other and smoke tabacco.
— Andrej Karpathy