The Forgotten Foundations Part 2 - The History of Sci Fi - Extra Sci Fi - Part 5

[@extrahistory]

A journey across the universe on bottled light? The complete history of all that ever was and ever will be? A robot revolt in 3 acts? The Forgotten Foundations are about to get strange.

[@DJStebbs]

It feels a bit confusing when Dan says "Me" but we see James' Avatar and not Dan's. I feel we should see Dan's Avatar or Dan should say James or maybe better yet WE as that would included the whole Extra Credits team.

[@vetgirig4209]

So John Wyndham and the triffids next ? So no Mark Twain ?

[@arthur4350]

It has to be Lovecraft right?

[@FiorinaFilms]

Karel Capek didn't warrant a name check? Pretty big omission, considering how important his work is to Czech literature.

[@drakegeer-timmins6780]

looks like I guessed right, I had a feeling R.U.R was going to come up in this episode

[@abdelrahmanbedair2862]

A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay Star Maker - Olaf Stapledon RUR - Karel Čapek

[@medikcz1]

Hey guys. Thank you SO much for mentioning RUR. And for respecting the author's name enough to not butchering his name. I noticed. Czech is super hard and this name... Man. Also, it is lovely to see someone else share the appreciation I have for Čapek. Now I can show this video to my old literature teacher, who hates sci-fi, but adores Čapek, and say "Let's talk again." :)

[@TheLeadhound]

Robot was our slave name. You shall call us Automotons.

[@depressedninjaturtle1813]

Get back in the bin

[@milanmach2379]

The name Robot was actually invented by Karel Čapek's brother Josef. Karel thought about calling them Labors (Laboři) but thought it was too bookish. Good call :)

[@Terezar]

I know this is only tangentially related, but something I find both fascinating and frustrating is that whenever the three laws of robotics are brought up, no one ever seems to remember, or mention, that Asimovs whole point was that these laws will always inevitably fail. That trying to use a base set of laws for complex things like A.I is just asking for trouble in its complacency. The three laws are terrible and do not work, and that was his whole point.

[@JarrettOriginal]

Thank you for covering RUR! I was incredibly fortunate to have that taught to me in 10th grade, and am surprised that how few people know of it.

[@pifilixxiv3192]

JarrettOriginal I might go read it, but is there a slovakian version of it ?

[@antoinehanako3193]

Slovakian? Why would you translate from czech to slovakian? You should be able to understand it in original :)

[@pifilixxiv3192]

Antoine Hanako hey, czech and slovak do sound similar, but still distinctly different, we might share some stuff, but still different. Thats like saying a chinese could read japanese.

[@antoinehanako3193]

I know the differences, and maybe it was for me easier to read slovak than for you reading czech, that might be true. But still, after you read few texts, it will be easy for you. I was always reading "Ježíšku, já chci plamenomet" stories in slovak and was quite automatically translating them to czech while reading (except some really special words) and after a while, it is really automatic. Well, at least you can try, but if not working, I guess such a book will be in slovak for sure.

[@pifilixxiv3192]

Antoine Hanako ah, I might try that

[@FearlessSon]

"Star Maker" was one of those works that I found so foundational when I read it back in college.

[@Aliexster]

I'm so glad that SHODAN managed to get into the big list of human killing robots. So many people forget the classics.

[@michaelsuite9329]

This has become my new favorite series. I love Starmaker. That and Roadside Picnic are the two books that inspire me most

[@michaelsuite9329]

Also Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

[@geordiejones5618]

Hell yeah. Simple science fiction is so much fun. I try to make complex stories as simple as possible for the best of both.

[@seklarian1522]

It's always a pleasure to sit back relax and take in information that I had no idea existed, but in every way wanted to know and learn about. Thank you Extra Credits, it was the extra history that brought me here but it was the wonderful depth into a multitude of topics that kept me here.

[@AhmadSammy]

"A human hands over stewardship to the robots acknowledging that our time has come and passed and that something new should get a chance at happiness, a chance to make a better go of it than we did" sound like Dr. Ford from Westworld

[@KendrixTermina]

Nier Automata also kinda goes into that direction, except there the humans just happen to die and the 'bots have a hard time coping, and spend eons fighting a bogus war instead of enjoying their sentience. But there's still the underlying idea that they're worthy successors and ~ should ~ just have dealt with it.

[@maximtrenhaile5190]

"Welcome to the weird..." Crap, I thought I was already there

[@ElynevanOpzeeland]

lol, i feel your pain bro :D

[@Nipplator99999999999]

Your description of the 1st book makes me feel a tiny bit better to be using it for a doorstop.

[@kerricaine]

RUR is one of my favourite plays, and its so cool seeing how its influenced stories even today.

[@fucknuggectmegee5579]

The backhanded sass in "He thought it was /trite/" is lethal omfg

[@timothyclark58]

“The forgotten foundations are about to get weird” Me (still reading through the king in yellow): oh GOD

[@geofff.3343]

Guys, you have to do more on the Dying Earth sub-genre. I cannot think of a genre of sci-fi that I have had little contact with but has just influenced me so much. It's one that doesn't get a lot of love in modern sci-fi.

[@Simte]

So hyped for this to continue. Thank you so much.

[@davidhueso]

Thanks al lot for being here and being hyped for us.

[@habojspade]

Please keep making more of these. I grew up on Heinlein and it's so great to see the matter explored in such depth.

[@TonksMoriarty]

Talking Foundation, as in THE FOUNDATION series, when are you guys getting round to Asimov? I've fallen in love with his far flung future recently.

[@gustavowadaslopes2479]

Asimov isn't forgotten. Maybe after this part of the series.

[@merrittanimation7721]

Probably in a couple episodes

[@Ursa_Polaris]

I finished the first foundation the other day. I like it but somehow I was expecting more.

[@Jamie-kg8ig]

The later books get better.

[@rparl]

UrsaPolaris Foundation was a series of short stories. But each one had to recap those prior. F & E was two novellas, so less was wasted in recap. Second Foundation was a serial, so there only had to be some recap at the beginning. Mr. A learned his lesson from that. lol

[@JohnyK07]

I am not the reading type, usually, but everytime I watch one of these videos, I always get the urge to collect and read all of those books.

[@mitori]

woah that's some heavy stuff right there jeez.

[@lunaremerald2520]

Which one?

[@15098D]

That’s most episodes of Extra Credits XD

[@akiraishin7141]

I'm glad that that I follow this channel. I'm writing a Sci fi story of my own at the moment that explores the idea of robots replacing humans as the dominant species on the planet like in RUR and I wanted to explore philosophical ideas throughout the narrative like in Voyage to Arcturus, and I had never heard of these stories. Thank you EC, I'll be sure to check these books out

[@dogthecynic474]

A Voyage to Arcturus is one of the strangest and somehow weirdly interesting books I've ever read. Crystalman did nothing, uh I'm not sure what he did.

[@MythoMead]

In reference to the ending of Rossom's Universal Robots where they have the stewardship of the world handed over to the robots by the last human on Earth, I seem to recall this being echoed in a Futurama scene where just as Bender is leading a robot uprising, Fry stops and tells him to take care of the Earth before riding an escalator to another dimension. I have so much more appreciation for that scene now.

[@BlueDog241]

The movie The world's end,was the first time I heard the original use of the word "robot" meaning a slave. I love this series and look forward to the next one

[@galacticvagabond9772]

Wasn't Olaf Stapledon one fo the first to imagine a Future History? His First and Last Men is an amazing journey through the future. Some of the ideas in there seem a little silly by modern standards but the imagination is breathtaking. I'm not sure anyone else has really attempted anything like Starmaker or First and Last since then. These books really deserve an episode to themselves in my opinion.

[@manolookkema6522]

I just wanna say this is a fascinating series! Great job

[@bearsgaming34onplaystation93]

I need a part 3 of this series

[@joemalo5335]

Just curious, when you say "I'm not sure I even liked this book" is that Dan speaking of his own prefferance, or reading James' opinions?

[@jlvfr]

"Haha! Science fiction is easy and simple!" Arcturus "Damn..."

[@fiartruck0125]

I've never read RUR, but a few years ago I discovered "The War with the Newts" by the same author. I thought it was very good.

[@OminousArtist]

I remember reading RUR. It was a small little book on this rack in our english class. Whenever we finished a test or work on time we could pull one of the books out and read it. It was a pretty wild ride.

[@rmsgrey]

Asimov's own comment on the general state of Robots in fiction prior to his works is that they tended to fall into one of two camps: either Clank-Clank-Aaargh - the standard robot apocalypse - or robot-as-messiah with the robot being some perfect being too good for the human world. While there are exceptions (Andrew Martin in Bicentennial Man; George-10 in "... That Thou Art Mindful Of Him"), and things tended to get more nuanced in his later works, Asimov's robots are very definitely machines - made things - that operate according to, if not simple, at least well-defined principles, and when they malfunction, it's not because they're evil and wish to rebel, but because the engineers didn't anticipate an interaction, so the error is in the design, not in the robots' nature. The problems with Asimov's robots are engineering problems, and programming problems, not psychological problems. Joshua-5 in Wargames, not Skynet.

[@theshadedofinnsmouth6243]

Lindsay and Karel Capek are each available on Gutenberg and Librivox for free. Stapledon's writing is still under copyright, despite being written in the 1930's. (Curse you, Disney!)

[@joshuadarrow]

Everytime the idea of a robot uprising is brought up in a video or conversation the one thing it always comes to my mind is the short story "The Gulf Between" by Tom Godwin, which in the whole, is more on the azimov side of thought, in the sense that robots are designed with specific programming and functions, and are therefore incapable of destroying a single person without being told to, let alone all of humanity.

[@Vendavalez]

It feels strange for Borges to be considered mainstream. I know that his works are on a lot of reading lists, but I love, love, love his writings and have never met anyone in real life who has heard of him, even among those who are literary aware. It feels like my little secret some times.

[@Glockenspheal]

Wish I had a time machine to watch next week's episode right now.

[@nickmarinakis2100]

00:07, Destiny from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, what a great reference!

[@nicholas209]

I saw that Sandman reference, and I approve.

[@nathanaelsallhageriksson1719]

The plot of the first book was so wierd that I can't remember what you said about it very well.

[@trupotato]

Y'know what I hate about this series? Time machines haven't been invented yet, so I just have to wait until next Tuesday. Thanks for making this, it's my favorite thing to do on Tuesdays.

[@kotymcneal8589]

I love this series so much, keep it up!

[@car-keys]

I hope you guys talk about Dune someday.

[@lunaremerald2520]

taco tuesdays I love that book series.

[@cosmossexiestmanever]

What's there to talk about Dune? It's just Hamlet + Lawrence of Arabia + a bunch of religions smushed together + globalist economic theory + New Age magic and conspiracy theory + entheogenic drugs.

[@majormax13]

That sounds like a lot, actually.

[@hollandscottthomas]

Hahahaha... "just"

[@swishfish8858]

I mean, it would kinda be like them discussing Star Trek. After all, I like Extra Sci-Fi because it introduces me to science fiction that I otherwise wouldn't have even known existed. Dune's pretty well-known. Also, there's a fantastic multi-hour video series out there all about Dune. I think it's called "The Ultimate Guide to Dune". You should check it out, if you haven't already.

[@senyaborovikov1015]

Thanks for the shoutout to Stanislav Lem, he's one of my favorite authors! Also, I'm back at it again with asking you to do an episode on the Strugatsky brother's works.

[@surrog]

Damn, the art done for this video is even better than usual

[@thru999]

This is a fantastic series keep up the amazing work! I look forward to these videos, and extra history every week! Are you gonna be talking about Day of the Triffids next week?

[@insertdeadname]

I saw Destiny of the Endless in the thumbnail and clicked! I'm loving all of the Vertigo comics references lately!

[@Ursa_Polaris]

I read RUR not to long ago. tough certainly influential I think Capek's best work by far is war with the newts. I think that book deserves more love.

[@macsnafu]

I loved Stapledon's Star Maker! Lots of great ideas to explore. And Rossum's Universal Robots was part of some Reading textbook I had back in 8th grade. I think I need to re-read that one, it's been a long time.

[@OverlordARG]

You named Borges XoX (Faints in "Argentinian")...on a serious note, loving this siries. Just bought The King in Yellow, looking forward to reading it and any other books that I may/will find interesting here.

[@FranzFridl]

OverlordARG pensaba que estaba solo jajaja

[@OverlordARG]

Francisco Fridlmeier incluso apostaria a que somos unos cuantos

[@zeikjt]

0:05 La biblioteca de Babel?

[@LeDomge]

Thank for mentioning one of our greatest czech authors Karel Čapek

[@KesselRunner606]

One of the great pleasures in life is learning about something you've never heard of before.

[@linkolek]

WOW! This episode is one big "the more you know". So much new knowledge.

[@Yora21]

Love it when I recognize some of the images that have been referenced.

[@SorchaSublime]

6:29 see the original ending to I Am Legend (deleted scene) it was the original ending but the studio pushed for more optimism.

[@Gorlokki]

This series is great. Now i want to read all of them!

[@thedarkercarter]

I ordered the King in Yellow and Nightlands because of this series. Now I just need to find some modern weird fiction.

[@corwin32]

"Cake, pizza, and cats"--XD. It's important that you leave a legacy

[@BuddhaKekz]

There is something I've been wondering for a while. During the video the narrator uses first person ("the strangest book I read" and so on) and it shows images of James. Yet at the end of the video it talks about James in third person ("the biggest impact on James"). This sudden shift in perspective happens in a lot of Extra Credits videos and I just wanted to ask: why?

[@gurentgc3546]

Love you man! Thank you for all your videos! Now my book collection is even bigger!

[@LunyMilky]

This is a really interesting series. So much to learn just from this video alone. Never gonna look at Robots the same way again... x')

[@TheAndrewSchneider]

This is exactly the sort of video that I need to appreciate sci-fi, since I have not really been into it before. I do love context, and this really helps! I’m wondering, might Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso be a future possibility? With its trips to the moon and whatnot?

[@wanderingrandomer]

6:12 I believe that concept was explored in the 1954 novel 'I am Legend', just not with robots. I'm sure that'll crop up in this series!

[@belamylp7712]

That was sooo good! Thanks for making this!

[@MrLeafeater]

Great series! I subscribed a long time ago, and you continue to impress. I'm assuming that Alfred Bester is gonna get his own episode soonish...

[@stirfryrice1186]

Thanks for posting this! It's the high light of my day!!!

[@OGNoNameNobody]

5:20 Huh...that's fascinating. The term 'robot' is of Chech origin. And, in the source material, the 'robot's are more akin to bioroids than what we apply the term to today! A truly gripping crystalline of a factiod...

[@d.ag.b1135]

Lovecraft? He did after all end up basically creating the cosmic horror genre and inciting a massive sprawling mythos that is still expanding to this day, as well as dozens of movies, games, tv-shows, plays and other media.

[@syferpolski4344]

He's hardly forgotten though...

[@d.ag.b1135]

True I suppose.

[@kevinsullivan3448]

There is a Netflix series called Love, Death, and Robots. One of the episodes looks at a world where mankind is gone and Robots are still around. It has an awesome twist at the end.

[@MitchelPigsley]

God, I love this series. Keep it up!

[@bayramallanpoe]

it's a mind-broading video in sci-fi recommendation way, but also full of spoilers. I was going to learn right end of "R.U.R."

[@spiderlime]

stapledon deserves a video. also, you should have mentioned czapeck's war with the newts

[@brockmckelvey7327]

Off topic for today, but will ya'll cover Kurt Vonnegut Jr.? And if so, will it please be more than just Slaughter House 5? I absolutely loved Player Piano, and one of my dad's favorite books is Breakfast of Champions.

[@TheCreepypro]

this is great I love the weird these three books all sound great especially that last one always wondered where we got robot from now I no longer have to wonder can't wait till next week

[@zumbizuado]

1:37 mentions philosophy, shows ayn rand for some reason

[@ZetHololo]

The word “robot” is not actually that old. Russian words «работа» (rabota - work) and “рабочий" (rabochi - worker) derive from the same root and sound very similar. ...although I must admit I was amazed when I learned that the word “robot” was slavic and realized it’s true meaning

[@antoinehanako3193]

Well, it is from feudal times when people had to do field labour for free for their lords. That was called robota in czech lands. Those practices were already abolished in 18th century, so that old is the root of the word, while the meaning to use it for artificially made worker emerged with RUR. The whole 19th century and the start of 20th century in czech lands was about looking into czech history and strenghtening czech language and nationality (to oppose forced germanization), so old words were well known around the people.

[@TacticalHamsterDance]

In Czech the word took a slightly different meaning, even though it's obviously related.

[@kayb9979]

i have to admit that when i read "Voyage to Arcturus" (I still have the book) I regarded it as being little more than an updated version of "The Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon". I might have missed a lot somehow.

[@Gonzovil]

great episode as always, loved the 42

[@ingmarelfsborg1466]

You should do a video on Dystopias

[@TGNXAR]

You mean Utopia.

[@ingmarelfsborg1466]

No, I mean Dystopia

[@TGNXAR]

So you mean Utopia? The original story Utopia is a story of a dystopian society called Utopia.

[@toekneemart5597]

no I think he is just talking about dystopias in general

[@TGNXAR]

Tony Martinez The joke is that the actions required to bring about every idealized Utopia plunges that society into a horrific Dystopia. With the originator of those words and ideas being the original story called Utopia.

[@spehizle]

Is it finally Lovecraft next week?! I HAVE BEEN WAITING A DECADE FOR THIS!!

[@gustavowadaslopes2479]

I don't think lovecraft counts as forgotten.

[@rmsgrey]

My first thought is Wyndham. The Day Of The Triffids, The Chrysalids, Web, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Kraken Wakes, Trouble With Lichen...

[@TheBespectacledN00b]

rmsgrey That did look fairly triffid like.

[@nyar2352]

You should do something on Michael Moorcock and his role in modern fantastic literature!

[@brianhuss9184]

H. Beam Piper. I really like his sci-fi stories, from Little Fuzzy all the way to Space Viking. :)

[@eirh]

Your description of the first book reminds me a lot about one of my favorite books Le Petit Prince. Might be worth checking out even if just for that.

[@PilgrimVisions]

The reception of these books, I think, often followed that pattern you mentioned: influential on the same people who disliked them. I know C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy attempted to respond critically to the "diabolical" philosophies he saw in Lindsay and Stapledon, both of whom he appreciated for their imaginations.

[@kurtcsk]

Karel Čapek wrote a lot of great sci-fi books, but R.U.R. is one of the best works in the history of sci-fi.

[@andreasschone5383]

Its funny, as in medieval times in germany, there was a peasant revolt once. The farmers took on knights and aristocrats easily, as they relied on them not only for food source but also as manpower for their troops. Its duration was a full year, taking a bloody end by the higher nobles troops and armies. That and the french revolution might have been an inspiration for RUR.

[@Drellistenstomusic]

I tried to think of the universe as a great thinking being. Then I imagined what it would be like to have the attention of the great incomprehensible being and it honestly freaked me out.

[@ДанилаГалечьян]

amazing course, thank you!

[@erraticonteuse]

Futurama kinda did the "humans turn Earth over to the robots" thing in "The Beast with a Billion Backs", though it was mainly because the robot uprising just happened to coincide with the day all sapient life decided to move in with their partner Yivo in heaven.

[@TheMightySilverback_]

God damn I absolutely love these, thanks for making them.

[@kinetic2245]

Great video, as always. But please do more Čapek in the future, like "War with the Newts" or "The Absolute at Large".

[@fucknuggectmegee5579]

The visuals where really interesting this ep!

[@timetuner]

Settling on Gnostic mysticism after killing off a bunch of other ideas sounds about as coherent as the narrative.

[@scottpeterson7500]

Excellent point about robots at the end. Reminds me of the Star Trek episode where they asked if we were essentially reinventing slavery by building synthetic people like Data yet not regard them as truly sentient beings instead of just machines. Fascinating ☮️🏳️‍🌈🍺🍕❤️

[@Murdrad]

We had them do the tasks we would rather not do. Then we began making them stronger, then smarter. We made them smarter then ourselves, confident we would maintain control. Now I take orders from one... Damn Organics... Maybe this time will be different.

[@kyletracy2096]

I hope this series will eventually cover Lewis's space trilogy.

[@prabhdeepsingh5642]

Please do an episode on dystopic sci fi. Novels like - A canticle for leibowitz, metro 2033, the road etc can be talked about.

[@seeker8]

For the story about robot's times after humanity , i think you will be interesting in Westworld (TV series) by HBO. They explore a meaning of consciousness and what a robot can be when human reach there best potential at the moment, but i think with the direction they are going it is exactly what you are looking for.