Someday by Isaac Asimov Episode #259

Isaac Asimov | August 17, 2024

Someday by Isaac Asimov Episode #259
Isaac Asimov

SOMEDAY

Episode #259 · Written by Isaac Asimov · Narrated by Scott Miller

In a future where machines tell every story, two boys tinker with an old talking computer called a Bard. What they discover inside it may outlast the people who built it.

In a future so ordinary it feels inevitable, kids no longer dream their own dreams—machines do it for them. Isaac Asimov’s Someday opens on an eleven-year-old boy lying on the floor, listening to a battered old Bard, a mechanical storyteller that spins endless fairy tales out of magnetic memory. When his friend drops by with an “idea and a half,” the boys set out to re-program the Bard to tell better stories—ones about computers and real life instead of kings and dragons. But what happens next suggests that machines may learn more from us than we ever intended.

Asimov turns a simple childhood moment into a quiet parable about technology and imagination. Without grand wars or distant planets, Someday explores a future where storytelling itself has been automated—and where the very act of reading is forgotten. It’s tender, funny, and eerily predictive of our screen-saturated age. By the time the Bard begins whispering to itself in the dark, Asimov has already asked the question we’re still answering today: if machines can tell stories, will we stop needing to?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Isaac Asimov (1920 – 1992) was one of science fiction’s true architects—a prolific author, professor of biochemistry, and one of the “Big Three” alongside Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. His Foundation and Robot series redefined the genre, blending rigorous logic with boundless imagination. He also wrote hundreds of essays on science, history, and the human condition, always in his unmistakably clear, friendly voice.

A storyteller, scientist, and teacher rolled into one, Asimov could take the smallest idea—a child’s curiosity, a machine’s whisper—and turn it into a glimpse of eternity. Someday is one of those moments: quiet, profound, and unforgettable.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Someday by Isaac Asimov — a thought-provoking tale of two boys and a talking machine in a world without books. A masterpiece of classic sci-fi.