Isaac Asimov Predicts the Future on The David Letterman Show (1980)

""professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine""

""author of 212 books, most of them on various scientific subjects for the general public.""

""hardly anyone can read""

""Asimov, sixty in this video, proves himself a natural comedian," writes the Melville House blog; "Letterman, thirty-three, can barely keep up.""

In 1980 Isaac Asimov diagnosed a "cult of ignorance" in the United States and claimed that "hardly anyone can read." He simultaneously cultivated a strong presence on television and enjoyed televised entertainment. He made a first major TV appearance on Johnny Carson in 1968, appeared four times on The Mike Douglas Show, and gave final television interviews to Dick Cavett in 1989. He wrote a humorously critical ALF piece in 1987 and appeared on David Letterman the same year, demonstrating notable comic timing. He held a scientific appointment as "professor of biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine" and was described as "author of 212 books, most of them on various scientific subjects for the general public."

Read at Open Culture