>In actual fact, the decades since 1945 have been remarkably war-free as compared with the decades before it. There have been local wars in profusion, but no general war. But then, war is not required as a desperate device to consume the world's resources. That can be done by such other devices as endless increase in population and in energy use, neither of which Orwell considers.
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>He did not foresee the role of oil or its declining availability or its increasing price, or the escalating power of those nations who control it. I don't recall his mentioning the word 'oil'.
I feel like Asimov completely misses the point here. The fact that we didn't have the kind of "general war" Orwell wrote about doesn't mean this isn't meaningful or relevant, it just means we didn't do that then. Jump forward a few decades and it's not hard to imagine e.g. the Bush years of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan rhyming with Orwell a bit.
And, perhaps it's inevitable given this is from 1980, but Asimov is stuck in the overpopulation-as-demon narrative and peak-oil stuff. Neither of those have lasted the test of time.
Playlist of the original videos: <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaCDmykyjVw_B983AQ2iG...>, there's a channel now <https://www.youtube.com/@YourDinosaursAreWrong> which has newer episodes (can't vouch for, haven't seen) (playlist with old and (some of the) new: <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnpbQOy7TfC179wPmhHZr...>)