Isaac Asimov is one of the great nerds (and sideburn owners) of American history. The science fiction author wrote hundreds of fiction and nonfiction books short stories, some of them in a little apartment at the corner of 50th and Spruce. Philadelphia Weekly is petitioning the Pennsylvania Historical Marker Commission to erect a marker at the address where Asimov lived during WWII and wrote six stories that helped form two of his most influential series, and they could use some help:
Isaac Asimov, the late grand master of science
fiction, authored 500 books across every Dewey Decimal category and
invented the very idea of "robotics" as a field of study, thus shaping
the course of 20th- and 21st-century culture. Though he's often thought
of as a New Yorker, he spent three very important landmark years in
Philadelphia. From 1942 to 1945, while living and working here during
WWII as a chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Isaac Asimov wrote half
a dozen of the key stories that comprise his two most influential
cultural masterpieces: the Foundation series, which introduced the idea
of “psychohistory,” the mathematical modeling of the future; and the
Robot series, which introduced the famous Three Laws of Robotics
governing how artificial intelligences should behave.
It was at an apartment on the corner
of 50th and Spruce streets in West Philadelphia where Asimov wrote these
historic stories. So with the support of your signature, the
Philadelphia Weekly is petitioning the Pennsylvania Historical Marker
Commission to dedicate a marker at that location honoring Asimov's
profound literary accomplishment.
The petition just needs 184 more signatures. Go! [change.org, via BoingBoing]