Foundation – Isaac Asimov

Foundation is the first book in the Foundation series by Asimov. Interestingly it was published before the Prelude to Foundation. The reason is simple. A good amount of the Foundation series’ fans could not handle the 12,000 years leap into the future. Consequently the Prelude to Foundation was published. It gives a reasonably elaborate background to Foundation and addresses all the why, who, how and when comprehensively.

For the uninitiated, the Foundation is a group of scientists settled at either ends of the Galaxy,  who work on documenting all the inventions and scientific discoveries until then, for the future generations. One such end of Galaxy is where the planet Terminus is situated. This story is about the Foundation in Terminus.

The book is set at a time around 12,000 GE(Galactic Era). At this time, Hari  Seldon, a mathematician is all set to lay down the laws of psychohistory. Psychohistory in short is a mathematical study which aids in predicting the future with a reasonable accuracy. For a more rigorous mathematical introduction you can read the Prelude to Foundation. Of course, if you have some understanding of the adage “Power corrupts” and how our entire history has been centered around that, you could have guessed Seldon was not left in peace. He was always suspected to have an eye on the Empire. Before going any further, you must understand that the 25 million worlds and a quadrillion humans surviving in them were governed by a single Emperor, from Trantor. So, he was being watched, tailed and what not. You can imagine a futuristic version of Will Smith’s Enemy of the State. Of course Asimov  does not narrate any such action-packed sequences and has left his readers to imagine according to their times. He just gives what you need to know. And you get a Galactic wiki in the form of the Encyclopedia Galactica in the beginning of every chapter. All this gives you a feeling that you are looking back at how the Foundation was formed. All the futuristic details of  the Galaxy is given in a matter of fact manner.

After the laws of psychohistory had been laid, an arrangement called the Time Vault is made. The Vault is where Seldon makes his virtual appearance at intervals of around 50 years. He explains to his audience what crisis they have just evaded and what they are expected to face. But he does not and can’t explain how each of these Seldon’s crises can be handled, because it will alter the assumptions that were made in calculating the future based on the laws of psychohistory. Now it is evident that only those who have understood the basic tenets of Seldon’s psychohistory have been at the helm of things, mostly mayors of Terminus.

This book narrates the story of three Seldon’s crises. The first crisis involves a neighboring planet Anacreon getting power hungry and hinting war. This is handled very aptly by Salvor Hardin, the then mayor. Himself being a psychologist and a believer in Seldon’s psychohistory, he waits till the right moment when there is just one path of action possible. He very cunningly holds talks with all neighbors of Anacreon explaining that Foundation is in possession of atomic power and how the other nations may want to share the Foundation even if it were to be defeated.

The second crisis is more like a leak in the first solution. The fear instilled in the neighbors slowly dies. In the meanwhile Hardin had invented a religion that made the scientific advancements of the Foundation acceptable for the neighbors. This religion got entrenched into the lives of the inhabitants of the neighbors. Thus religion was used as a tool to avert an ultimatum of war by Anacreon again.

As time passed by, a new phenomenon of spreading this already weakening religion was discovered. Trade of Foundation’s scientifically advanced gadgets along with the spread of the religion was facilitated. Traders became the people with power. This crisis again involves an ultimatum to war, but the course of events that lead to the crisis are more complex than before and now trade is used as the tool to bring the war to a stalemate.

One thing we must certainly appreciate Asimov is for the way in which he has groomed the Galactic fate. He has certainly taken inspiration from our own world history. We can see that the author has drawn analogies  between events of past and future. This emphasizes his belief in the saying, “History repeats itself”. The Foundation being a newly born planet, goes through the transitions any society undergoes. Very similar to our history, he first scripts the birth of a religion. Though it was not practiced on its soil, it was applied on its relatively barbaric neighbors. Then is the birth of trade as a tool to wield power. In fact, we can see Seldon comparing Foundation’s work with that of the Renaissance. Renaissance of social, scientific and economic system of the existing, decaying Empire to give birth to the Second Empire.

By Space, I think i went on and on about the book. This is a very popularly noticed psychological phenomenon among Foundation series readers. They cant stop talking about it. So hurry and grab a copy, its hardly 200 pages. I am sure you ‘ll come to back to see what I have written about the book after reading it.