Rabbi Dr. Moshe Pinchuk
REVISTA HÉLICE: Volumen VI, n.º 2
The Naked Sun (1957) is the second of Isaac Asimov’s Robot Series. The plot is set on the planet Solaria which is characterized by a deeply rooted, abnormal antisocial aversion of its population coming into ontact with one another or even being in the presence of another.
All contact and communication between people is done via “viewing”—a sophisticated 3D telecommunication system. All needs are attended to by their myriad of faithful and capable robots. Just how intense the
aversion to physical proximity to another human being is on Solaria can be demonstrated by the following two episodes. Elijah Baley, an Earthman detective invited to Solaria to solve a crime, insists on conducting is interviews physically rather than by “viewing.”
During one of these interviews, with Anselmo Quemont, Solaria’s leading sociologist, Quemont experiences a nervous breakdown on account of the physical meeting, and can only continue through “viewing” During a conference “viewing”, Jothan Leebig, Solaria’s expert roboticist, breaks down and confesses to a murder when Baley informs him that his partner, Daneel Olivaw is on his way to his premises to restrain him before he can tamper with his records . Finally, as Cantoro Klorissa, assistant fetologist points out, “To be married? It’s a very traumatic process” .
Nowadays, this “traumatic process” would have been obviated by the advent of IVF…
