14 October 2025

Solaria

Talk with ChapGpt:
(it makes me wonder if we are going to Solaria...)

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I remember in Naked Sun from Asimov, there was a family in a planet that couldn't live near each other

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Exactly — you’re remembering The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov quite well.

In that novel, the story takes place on the planet Solaria, one of the “Spacer worlds.”
The people there are indeed so isolated that they can’t stand physical proximity to others — even being in the same room is unbearable to them.

Here’s what’s going on in more detail 👇


🌍 Solaria: The Anti-Social Planet

  • Solaria has a tiny human population (only about 20,000 people) spread across an entire planet.

  • Each person lives on a huge estate, served by thousands of robots.

  • Over centuries, this extreme comfort and automation led to social isolation:

    • People interact only through “viewing” (a kind of holographic video communication).

    • “Seeing” someone in personphysical presence — became psychologically intolerable.


🧠 Social consequences

  • They raise children apart; even spouses don’t live together.

  • Physical contact is seen as dirty or obscene.

  • Ironically, they have no fear of death or robots, but a deep fear of other humans.


🔍 In the story

Detective Elijah Baley (from Earth) is sent to Solaria to investigate a murder — the first murder in centuries on that planet.
He’s partnered again with R. Daneel Olivaw, his robot companion.
Baley’s discomfort with robots (as an Earthman) contrasts with the Solarians’ discomfort with people.


🧩 Theme

Asimov uses Solaria to explore:

  • The dangers of technological isolation.

  • How a society’s environment and habits can reshape human psychology.

  • The idea that too much comfort and automation can erode empathy and connection.


 

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The views expressed on this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.