Foundation

Foundation-Isaac Asimov

How I found this book: I once listened to a BBC radio production of it, and it was really good. So I wanted to read the actual book it was based on.

Setting: Somewhere in the future, when humans have created a Galactic Empire. This begins in the waning years of that Empire.

Main Characters:

Hari Seldon: A brilliant mathematician, he creates the social science of psychohistory, a way of using statistical analysis to predict the future of large groups of people, based on psychology and history. He is the founder of the Foundation, a group whose soul purpose in the waning age of the Empire is to preserve knowledge and to hold civilization together in the hopes of rebuilding a Second Galactic Empire in 1000 years.

Salvor Hardin: A descendent of the first colonist of Terminus, and it’s mayor during the first and second Seldon Crises, he is a shrewd politician, knowledgeable in some of the ways of psychology, and very politically savvy. Hardin is the one who recognizes the solution to both problems, and manipulations the situations to ensure the continuity safety of Terminus. He helps to place it in a prime position to become the dominate factor in the periphery of the crumbling Galactic Empire, primarily by turning science into religion, and controlling its knowledge from the Foundation.

Hober Mallow: A trader from the planet of Smyrno, he has a Foundation education, and is sent to learn why the planet of Korell has access to nucleics. He not only discovers the Empire’s role in providing the Korellians with the weapons, (and subsequently their lack of ability of knowing how to repair them), but helps move the Foundations control over the systems from that based on religion to one based on trade.


Plot: In the future of mankind, we have long left the earth and moved into a Galactic Empire, which rules the universe from its center on Trantor. But the Empire, though seemingly strong, has stagnated and is in its decline. Only Hari Seldon, a mathematician and developer of the science of ‘psychohistory’, (a way to use mathematics to predict the future of a large group of humans based on the knowledge of their history and the psychology of humans), knows for certain that this decline is happening, and he is preparing for the worst. Creating a Foundation on the far off planet of Terminus, he seeks to create a repository for all the physical science in the universe to help stave off the approaching collapse of the Empire and to begin preparing for the Second Empire to come. But being far from the Imperial center, the Foundation must learn to deal with the rising political forces on the edges of the Empire, and learn how to both protect themselves and consolidate their power against the rise of the independent minded ‘barbarians’ on the edge of the galaxy. Using Seldon’s ‘psychohistory’, the strong leaders of Terminus are able to stave off the various problems, (know singularly as a ‘Seldon crises’), and in each case allow the Foundation to come out stronger and more formidable in the end. But are the leader’s blind faith in their understanding of human nature and economics going to be enough to protect them in the end?

Themes:

The ability to predict human behavior in large scale: A large part of the book is Seldon’s ‘psychohistory’, the ability to statistically analyze and predict human behavior, based on knowledge of their psychology and their history. It only works on large groups of people, which seems to indicate that Hari Seldon has predicted what humanities course in the galaxy is for the next thousand years, using his science. It becomes a bedrock for the Foundation and the civilization that they create in the periphery of the Galaxy, as they learn to depend on Seldon’s predictions for their course of action in any major nexus point of conflict. In a way, much as Paul Atreides in Frank Herbert’s Dune series, Hari Seldon is seen as being the hand that is moving great future events because of his ability to calculate what might happen. In future Foundation stories, this becomes problematic for the Foundation. This is in large part why Seldon creates a ‘second Foundation’, to help counterbalance the rogue individual, something Seldon himself couldn’t predict in his calculations, and something he feared might happen.

The power of the individual to affect great change: Seldon couldn’t predict on the individual scale, but that is not to say that individuals in the foundation do not effect great change on the populace. Leaders such as Salvor Hardin and Habor Mallow are able to rise to the occasion of particular crises and use their reasoning to avert it handily. Yes, it is usually verified by Hari Seldon’s predictions, but it is something that anyone who thinks in a logical pattern of socio-economic tendencies could come up with if they connect the dots. And that individual is able to help the larger population through a disaster in waiting.

The rise and fall of an Empire: I was delighted to see that Asimov got the idea of this book from Edward Gibbon’s (in) famous book, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. As this particular period in history is my specialty, (Late Antiquity), it was fun to compare the slow decline of the Roman state and the rise of the barbarian kingdoms to the Foundation version of it. I had images in my head of keepers of Roman knowledge and science hiding out in places such as St. Catherine’s of the Sinai, or in hidden places in the Alps, while they dealt with the rising power of the barbarian hordes all around them, (Goths, Vandals, Franks, oh my!) For the history dork in me, this book was way too much fun for my own good.

Every book sucks somewhere: It isn’t the fault of the book, really, but perhaps the suckiest part of the book is that it is serialized. As Asimov collected the stories into book form many years after they had first been published in magazine form, the novel comes off disjointed, with not a lot of development for characters or the world. Where books such as Lord of the Rings or Dune are beloved and well known for the rich worlds and universes they create, Foundation suffers a bit from no real explanation of ‘how we got here’ and ‘why are things this way again’. While the blips from the Encyclopedia Galactica that head up many of the sections do try to lend some depth to the story, it just doesn’t feel as much of a ‘real’ future for humanity as say Dune did.

Also, I would have liked much more discussion on just what psychohistory is. As both a historian and someone whose worked in Marketing Research for years now, it interested me as these are two areas I’ve spent a great deal of my adult life working in and trying to understand. So I would have been curious to know what it is, and how it came about. From my understanding Asimov does explain this a bit more in Forward Foundation, the prequel written shortly before Asimov’s death.

What did I like: I loved the ties it had to the real life late antique history of our world, and how much Asimov made it mirror the happenings of my favorite period in history.

Also, despite the fact that the serial nature prohibits great detail, I do like the fact that the serial nature meant things happen very quickly. This meant that the book flowed a lot better than some books of greater length, and that it’s a quick read. I guess sometimes you can’t have both.

How would I rate this wormy book: I would rate this book as a FAT worm, if you love Roman or Byzantine History, or if you just like reading good sci-fi, this is a great book. It’s perfect for a quick afternoon read on the weekends when you are just jonesing for a bit of futuristic, human nature sci-fi that doesn’t involve strange aliens, mystic religions, and light-sabres. Though, those are just as fun too….yum, Han Solo.