SCI FI PI

FOUNDATION

By Isaac Asimov

When discussing the Golden Age of Science Fiction, there are three authors that you must always include - the recently deceased Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. When you think of Science Fiction, it owes something to these three. When Science Fiction is broken up into its various sub-genres, and across it's spectrum, from 'Hard' to 'Fantasy', one begins as 'scientist as author', the pipe-chomping bearded type with glasses who writes about what would happen if the latest advances in science were to become reality. Add mutton chops, and you have Isaac Asimov. His particular brand of Science Fiction eschewed aliens and focused on science, robots, and in the Foundation series, the concept of 'psychohistory'.

Asimov was prolific, to say the least, writing literally hundreds of books, spanning subjects that even included the Bible. His contribution to Science Fiction is staggering, not just in quantity, but also in quality. His invention of the Thee Laws of Robotics has now passed from fiction and into reality, his Foundation series and his Galactic Empire series are considered cornerstones of not just his work, but of all Science Fiction.

His short story, Nightfall, is generally considered one of the greatest of science fiction, and was actually voted as the greatest Science Fiction Story of the century by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1964. Which was nice.

Born in 1920 in Russia, Asimov and his family emigrated to the US when he was three, and he grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His parents owned sweet shops, which also sold pulp magazines, and young Isaac would read the Science Fiction found within avidly. He started writing at the age of eleven, and sold his first science fiction story at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Columbia University, earning a PhD in 1948. He joined the Boston University School of Medicine thereafter, and eventually gained tenure, being made professor of Biochemistry in 1979, all the while contributing as a writer of Science Fiction, Fiction and Non-Fiction.

He was a close friend of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and was known for his attentive responses to fans, being one of the first Sci Fi convention regulars and personally writing and signing tens of thousands of letter and postcard responses to fan mail.

He died in 1992 from complications due to AIDS, having contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during a 1983 heart operation.



Foundation series covers.

FOUNDATION

Foundation is not a single novel, but a series of novels, made up of shorter stories. These short stories began with his first story 'The Encyclopaedists' submitted to Astounding Magazine in 1942. The first of the original three Foundation novels was published in 1951, Foundation. Then in 1952, Foundation and Empire, and in 1953, Second Foundation.

In 1982 he continued the story with Foundation's Edge, and again in 1986 with Foundation and Earth. In 1988 he went one step further with two prequels to the original stories, Prelude to Foundation and finished off the saga in 1992, with Forward the Foundation. He combined the Foundation series with his 'Robot' series with Robots and Empire in 1986.

The original stories are based on the concept that with enough data, a 'psychohistorian' can predict with astonishing accuracy the broad sweeps of the future of mankind. Hari Seldon is able to see what will happen across a galaxy populated by humans and during the fall of a human Empire that spans thousands of years.

For modern day readers, the irony of predicting the future on a grand scale comes when the technology of the forties and fifties pops up here and there, like computer punchcards.

Asimov's writing style is direct and often prosaic, with a minimum of character development and a great deal of attention to plot as the driving force of his narrative. Exposition as dialogue is a common thread through almost all his novels.

The use of scientist as protagonist, bald exposition and brains over brawn are some of the fundamental tools that Asimov uses and has since influenced most subsequent SF writing, with authors either conforming to or in more recent decades, avoiding this particular format.



More Foundation series covers.


That said, the Foundation story is all about story, and when you have the disintegration and then collapse of a grand galactic empire that is then rebuilt from two separate sources on opposite edges of the galaxy, you have one heck of a story.

From the city planet of Trantor (which many recognise, reborn, as George Lucas' Coruscant) the Galactic Empire once ruled all humanity, but as it disintegrates, clever scientist Hari Seldon hatches a plot to make sure that the knowledge of the Empire is not lost. Thus is born the 'Foundation' of scientists with one goal, to create the Encyclopaedia Galactica, and thus retain the crucial information on technology and science that will reduce the gap between destruction and rebirth from 10,000 years to a single millennium.

But there are plots within plots, and it's only later that Hari Seldon's cunning plan becomes clear.

Of the original three novels, there are three shorter segments, making up nine novelettes, each expounding on different times during the years after Hari Seldon first laid down his secret framework for the future, each focusing on different characters at different turning points in galactic history.

As impossible and unavoidable forces smash into each other, characters recognise a 'Seldon Crisis' and gather to hear the holographic projection of Hari Seldon come forth to answer the detailed questions of the day, by giving sometimes quite enigmatic, but always relevant and pertinent advice. Sometimes the act of doing nothing is all that's required to bring about success.

The broad strokes of history and empire rebuilding are laid out across the Foundation series, using religion, science, trade and war as cultural influences and driving forces behind the the rebirth of civilisation. The sheer epic scope of it all, the audacity of Seldon's plan and the tremendous Space Opera set pieces makes this a hugely enjoyable read.

The idiosyncratic errors in predicting the future also lend a certain charm, and can be forgiven, because Asimov's fundamental statements about the forces of humanity and our reactions to moral crisis ring true again and again.

Deservedly considered a Sci Fi classic, Foundation is something that all newbies to Sci Fi should read.



Still more Foundation covers

The THREE LAWS of Robotics

1.) A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2.) A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3.) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.




One of the words coined by Isaac Asimov is 'Positronic' which fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation will recognise in the brain of Lt.Cmdr Data. For more adventures with Data, check out Star Trek: The Next Generation for the next episode!