Story

Asimov's essay nailed 2014 civilization's fascination with gadgetry and the frivolous uses of same, aided by incredible advances in communication bandwidth and technology. "There will be lots of robots around, but they won't be very good." Wow! He also predicted similar advances in mechanical engineering, but those have been slower than he anticipated, perhaps more because of economic and financial reasons than scientific/technological know-how.

He thought we'd have colonies on the moon by now; the fact that we don't is something the rest of us should regret, not Asimov.

I'm not a big science fiction fan but I did read some Asimov when I was in school. He wasn't the kind of literary writer you could stack up against the authors who publish stories in The New Yorker, but he was an excellent craftsman who wrote to inform, provoke, and entertain readers at the same time. And always with a friendly touch.