Isaac Asimov
American writer and biochemist (1920–1992)
Common Themes
Videos Mentioning Isaac Asimov

Ex Machina's Scientific Advisor - Murray Shanahan
Y Combinator
A science fiction author famous for his Three Laws of Robotics, which are discussed in relation to their relevance and violation in Ex Machina.

Ariel Ekblaw: Space Colonization and Self-Assembling Space Megastructures | Lex Fridman Podcast #271
Lex Fridman
Another science fiction author who influenced Ekblaw, particularly his 'Foundation Trilogy' which explored the structure of society across vast distances and time.

Yann LeCun: Dark Matter of Intelligence and Self-Supervised Learning | Lex Fridman Podcast #258
Lex Fridman
A science fiction writer, quoted at the end of the podcast with words about assumptions and open-mindedness.

Boris Sofman: Waymo, Cozmo, Self-Driving Cars, and the Future of Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #241
Lex Fridman
A science fiction writer whose quote about robots and love concludes the podcast.

Making Sense of Artificial Intelligence
Sam Harris
Science fiction author who wrote about artificial intelligence and its ethical implications.

Jaron Lanier: Virtual Reality, Social Media & the Future of Humans and AI | Lex Fridman Podcast #218
Lex Fridman
Author of a story where a planet's inhabitants occasionally see the sky, inspiring a thought experiment about human civilization's development without visible stars.

Rodney Brooks: Robotics | Lex Fridman Podcast #217
Lex Fridman
Science fiction writer who formulated the Three Laws of Robotics.

Vincent Racaniello: Viruses and Vaccines | Lex Fridman Podcast #216
Lex Fridman
Science fiction writer whose quote, 'The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom,' is used as a closing thought for the podcast.

Books I’ve Loved — Matt Mullenweg | The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss
Author of the 'Foundation' series, an influential science fiction work.

Dr. Michio Kaku — Exploring Time Travel, the Beauty of Physics, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss
A science fiction author whose Foundation Trilogy fascinated Michio Kaku as a child.

Colin Angle: iRobot CEO | Lex Fridman Podcast #39
Lex Fridman
Author who proposed the Three Laws of Robotics in his 1942 short story 'Runaround'. These laws are used as a philosophical starting point for discussing robot safety and intent.

Dmitri Dolgov: Waymo and the Future of Self-Driving Cars | Lex Fridman Podcast #147
Lex Fridman
Science fiction author, compared to the Strugatsky Brothers, and whose short story 'The Last Question' is quoted by Dmitri Dolgov regarding the meaning of life.

Anca Dragan: Human-Robot Interaction and Reward Engineering | Lex Fridman Podcast #81
Lex Fridman
Author known for his Three Laws of Robotics, which are discussed in the context of universal ethical guidelines for AI, and for a quote about challenging assumptions.

Seth Godin on The Game of Life, The Value of Hacks, and Overcoming Anxiety | The Tim Ferriss Show
Tim Ferriss
Prolific science fiction author who published 400 books, known for his disciplined writing habit of typing for six hours daily, regardless of the quality, which helped him overcome fear of 'bad writing.'

Ryan Hall: Martial Arts and the Philosophy of Violence, Power, and Grace | Lex Fridman Podcast #125
Lex Fridman
A prolific science fiction writer, whose 'Foundation' series is on Lex Fridman's reading list as he explores sci-fi classics.

Brian Grazer Interview | The Tim Ferriss Show (Podcast)
Tim Ferriss
Preeminent science fiction author whom Brian Grazer failed to impress in an early curiosity conversation due to insufficient preparation, teaching him a valuable lesson.

Russ Tedrake: Underactuated Robotics, Control, Dynamics and Touch | Lex Fridman Podcast #114
Lex Fridman
A great science fiction writer known as 'the great explainer' for his non-fiction work, whose passion for clear communication and explanation resonates deeply.

Richard Karp: Algorithms and Computational Complexity | Lex Fridman Podcast #111
Lex Fridman
A science fiction writer quoted at the end of the podcast, stating, 'I do not fear computers; I fear lack of them.'

Greg Brockman: OpenAI and AGI | Lex Fridman Podcast #17
Lex Fridman
Author mentioned in the context of science fiction, including the concept of psychohistory from his Foundation series, which relates to predicting the behavior of large populations.

Sergey Levine: Robotics and Machine Learning | Lex Fridman Podcast #108
Lex Fridman
A science fiction writer whose works, particularly those envisioning a future with advanced AI and robotics, were very inspiring to Sergey Levine in his youth.

Emilio Frazzoli, CTO, nuTonomy - MIT Self-Driving Cars
Lex Fridman
Author of the Three Laws of Robotics, used as an example for hierarchical rule systems.

Stephen Wolfram: Computational Universe | MIT 6.S099: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Lex Fridman
Mentioned in the context of 'Asimov's laws of robotics' when discussing the impossibility of a single, simple 'golden rule' for AI ethics due to computational irreducibility.

Brian Keating: I’m Spending $200 Million To Explore Existence! How God Fits Into Science Explained!
The Diary Of A CEO
Author whose books inspired Brian Keating to become a scientist.

Ray Kurzweil: Singularity, Superintelligence, and Immortality | Lex Fridman Podcast #321
Lex Fridman
Science fiction writer quoted at the end of the podcast, emphasizing the importance of considering continuous and inevitable change in society and adopting a science-fictional way of thinking.