The Fun They Had

Isaac Asimov was born in Russia in 1920 and moved with his family to the United States at age three. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York, and attended Columbia University, ultimately earning a PhD in chemistry in 1948. During World War II, he worked as a civilian chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard’s Naval Air Experimental Station. His scientific background afforded him an expert’s perspective when writing hard science fiction, a subgenre of science fiction that, while still speculative, also prioritizes scientific accuracy and logic. This priority is evident in a story as brief and simple as “The Fun They Had.” In this story, Asimov extends a clear logical path to the potential consequences of machine learning. Individualized lessons for each child’s needs and abilities may sound ideal, for instance, but there is no functional way to do that within the current American model of education. Asimov’s scientific pragmatism leads him to depict a mechanical teacher in a schoolroom that has been shifted from the public context of a school building to the private setting of a home, a logical possibility that elucidates the themes of