Foundation Series
The Foundation Series is a series of science fiction novels written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories in the years 1942–1950, and later as three novels in the years 1951–1953, for thirty years the series was a trilogy: Foundation, Foundation, and Empire and Second Foundation. In 1966 it won the Hugo Award for best series of all time. Asimov added new novels starting in 1981, with two sequels: The Limits of the Foundation and Foundation and Earth, and two prequels: Prelude to the Foundation and Towards the Foundation. The additions refer to events from Asimov's Robot Series and Galactic Empire Series, indicating that they take place in the same fictional universe.
The stories are premised on the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, mathematician Hari Seldon spends his life developing the theory of psychohistory, a powerful new mathematical sociology. Using the statistical laws of mass action, he can predict the future of large populations. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Empire, which spans the entire Milky Way, and a few dark years that will last 30,000 years before a second empire rises. Though the momentum of the Empire's downfall is too great to stop, Seldon devises a Plan whereby "the rupturing mass of events must deviate just a little" from the Empire. to finally limit this interregnum to just a thousand years. To implement his Plan, Seldon creates the Foundations—two groups of scientists and engineers based on opposite ends of the galaxy—to preserve the spirit of science and civilization, and thus become the cornerstones of the new galactic empire.
A key feature of Seldon's theory, which has influenced real-world social science, is the uncertainty principle in sociology: if a population has knowledge of its intended behavior, its self-conscious collective actions become unpredictable.
Publication history
Original Stories
The original trilogy of novels compiled a series of eight short stories published in Astounding Magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas from the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, and spontaneously invented himself on his way to meet publisher John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concepts of the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the Foundations Preserving Civilization and psychohistory. Asimov wrote these early stories in his West Philadelphia apartment while working at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Foundation Trilogy
The first four stories were collected, along with a new introductory story, and published by Gnome Press in 1951 in the novel Foundation. The last stories were published by Gnome in two novels, Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the Foundation Trilogy, as the series is still known.
Later sequels and prequels
In 1981, Asimov's publishers convinced him to write a fourth book, which became The Limits of the Foundation (1982).
Four years later, Asimov followed with another sequel, Foundation and Earth (1986), which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Towards the Foundation (1993), published after his death in 1992. During the two-year gap between writing the sequels and the prequels, Asimov had related his Foundation Series with other of his series, creating a single unified universe. The basic link is mentioned in The Limits of Foundation: an obscure myth about a first wave of space settlements with robots and then a second without them. The idea is the one developed in The Robots of Dawn, which in addition to showing how the second wave of settlements was going to be allowed, illustrates the benefits and shortcomings of the first wave of settlements and their so-called C/Fe culture (carbon/iron, meaning humans and robots together). In this same book, the word psychohistory is used to describe the nascent idea of Seldon's work. Some of the drawbacks of this style of colonization, also called space culture, are also exemplified in the events described in the 1957 novel The Naked Sun.
The link between the robot and Foundation universes was strengthened by allowing the robot R. Daneel Olivaw, originally introduced in The Steel Vaults, to live for tens of thousands of years and played an important role behind the scenes of the Galactic Empire, both in its heyday and in the rise of the two Foundations that replaced it.
Novels in the series
- Trilogy of the Foundationor Cycle of Trántor (Foundation(c):
- Foundation (Foundation(1951)
- Foundation and Empire (Foundation and Empireor The Man Who Upset the Universe(1952)
- Second Foundation (Second Foundation(1953)
- Series Extended Foundation (Extended Foundation(c):
- The limits of the Foundation (Foundation's Edge(1982)
- Foundation and Earth (Foundation and Earth(1986)
- Series Precuelas de la Fundación (Fundation prequels(c):
- Prelude to the Foundation (Prelude to Foundation(1988)
- Towards the Foundation (Forward the Foundation(1993), published posthumously
Plot
Note: This plot outline of the seven novels follows the in-universe chronology of the series, which is not the order of publication. After many years as a trilogy consisting of Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation, the series was expanded with two prequels and two sequels.
Prelude to the Foundation (1988)
Prelude to Foundation begins on the planet Trantor, the capital planet of the empire, the day after Hari Seldon delivers a speech at a mathematics conference. Various political forces become aware of the content of his speech (that using mathematical formulas it may be possible to predict the future course of human history). Seldon is hunted down by the Emperor and several hired hitmen working undercover, forcing him into exile. Over the course of the book, Seldon and Dors Venabili, a classmate and history teacher, are taken from one place to another by Chetter Hummin, who, in the guise of a reporter, introduces them to various walks of Trantorian life in their attempts to keep Seldon hidden from the emperor. Throughout his adventures throughout Trantor, Seldon continually denies that psychohistory is a realistic science. Even if it is feasible, it may take several decades to develop. Hummin, however, is convinced that Seldon knows something, so he continually pressures him to find a starting point to develop the psychohistory. Eventually, after much travel and introductions to various and diverse cultures on Trantor, Seldon realizes that using the entire known galaxy as a starting point is too overwhelming; he then decides to take Trantor as a model to develop science, with the aim of later using the applied knowledge in the rest of the galaxy.
Toward the Foundation (1993)
Eight years after the events of Prelude to the Foundation, Seldon has developed the science of psychohistory and applied it on a galactic scale. His notoriety and fame increase and he is eventually promoted to be the Emperor's Prime Minister. As the book progresses, Seldon loses those closest to him, including his wife, Dors Venabili, as his own health deteriorates into old age. Having worked his entire adult life to understand psychohistory, Seldon instructs his granddaughter, Wanda, to establish the Second Foundation.
Foundation (1951)
Summoned to stand trial on Trantor on charges of treason (for portending the decline of the Galactic Empire), Seldon explains that his science of psychohistory foresees many alternatives, all of which result in the eventual fall of the Galactic Empire. If humanity continues on its current path, the Empire will fall and 30,000 years of turmoil will overwhelm humanity before a second Empire rises. However, an alternate path allows the intervening years to be just a thousand, if Seldon is allowed to gather the most intelligent minds and create a compendium of all human knowledge, titled the Galactic Encyclopedia. The rulers remain cautious, but allow Seldon to round up whomever he needs, as long as he and the "encyclopedists" don't want to. be exiled to a remote planet, Terminus. Seldon agrees to the terms, and furthermore secretly creates a second Foundation about which almost nothing is known, which he says is at the "opposite end" of the two. of the galaxy.
After fifty years on Terminus, and with Seldon now dead, the inhabitants find themselves in a crisis. With four powerful planets surrounding their own, the Encyclopedists have no defenses other than their own intelligence. At the same time, a vault left behind by Seldon will open automatically. The vault reveals a pre-recorded hologram of Seldon, who informs the encyclopedists that his entire reason for being on Terminus is a fraud, to the extent that Seldon didn't really care whether or not an encyclopedia was created, just that the population was placed in Terminus. and the events necessary for their calculations were set in motion. In reality, the recording reveals, Terminus was created to reduce the dark years from 30,000 to just one millennium, according to his calculations. It will develop suffering "crisis" intermittent and extreme crises – known as "Seldon crises" – that the laws governing psychohistory show will inevitably be overcome, simply because human nature will cause events to happen in such a way as to lead to the desired goal. The recording reveals that the current events are the first crisis of its kind, reminding them that a second foundation was also formed at the "opposite end" of the crisis. of the galaxy, and then falls silent.
The mayor of Terminus City, Salvor Hardin, proposes that the planets be turned against each other. His plan is a success; the Foundation remains intact and he becomes the effective ruler. Meanwhile, the minds of the Foundation continue to develop new and better technologies that are smaller and more powerful than the Empire's equivalents. Using his scientific advantage, Terminus develops trade routes with nearby planets, eventually seizing them when their technology becomes a much-needed commodity. Interplanetary traders become the new diplomats from other planets. One such trader, Hober Mallow, becomes powerful enough to question and gain the mayoral position, and by cutting off supplies to a nearby region, he also manages to add more planets to Foundation control.
Foundation and Empire (1952)
An ambitious general of the current Emperor of the Galaxy perceives the Foundation as a growing threat and orders an attack against it, using the Empire's still powerful fleet of warships. The Emperor supports him at first, but later becomes suspicious of his general's long-term motive for the attack and withdraws the fleet despite being close to victory. Despite their undoubted inferiority in purely military terms, the Foundation is victorious and the Empire is defeated. Seldon's hologram reappears in the Terminus vault, explaining to the Foundation that this opening of the vault follows a conflict whose outcome was inevitable, no matter what was done: a weak Imperial fleet could not have attacked them, whereas a strong fleet would be seen as a direct threat to the emperor and would have been withdrawn.
A century later, an unknown outsider called the Mule has begun taking over the planets at an increasing rate. The Foundation realizes, too late, that the Mule is not provided for in Seldon's Plan, and that the Plan cannot have predicted any certainty of defeating it. Toran and Bayta Darell, accompanied by Ebling Mis, the Foundations' greatest psychologist, and a court jester named Magnifico, familiar with the Mule, set out for Trantor to find the Second Foundation, hoping to end the Mule's reign.. Mis frantically studies in the Great Library of Trantor to decipher the location of the Second Foundation, so that she can visit it and enlist his help. Mis is successful and also deduces that the Mule's success is due to his being a mutant capable of changing the emotions of others, a power he used to instill fear, first in the inhabitants of the conquered planets and then to make their enemies They were devotedly loyal to him. Mis is killed by Bayta Darell before he can reveal the location, she has realized that Magnifico is in fact the Mule and has been using his gifts to push Mis forward in his investigation, so that he himself can learn the location of the Second Foundation and subjugate it. Dismayed that he made a mistake that allowed Bayta to see through his disguise, the Mule leaves Trantor to rule his conquered planets while he continues his search for it.
Second Foundation (1953)
As the Mule closes in on his search for the mysterious Second Foundation, it briefly emerges from hiding to face the threat head-on. The Second Foundation is made up of the descendants of Seldon's psychohistorians. While the First Foundation has developed the physical sciences, the Second Foundation has been developing Seldon mathematics and the Seldon Plan, along with their use of telepathic abilities. The Second Foundation launches an operation to trick and eventually mind control the Mule, whom they have approached to peacefully rule his kingdom for the rest of his life, with no further thought of conquering the Second Foundation.
As a result, however, the First Foundation learned something from the Second Foundation beyond the simple fact that it exists and has some understanding of its function. This means that your behavior will now be governed in light of that knowledge, and will not be based on uninformed natural human behavior, which means that your behavior will no longer be the natural response required by the mathematics of the Seldon Plan. This places the Plan itself at great risk. Furthermore, the First Foundation begins to resentfully regard the other as a rival, and a small group begins to secretly develop equipment to detect and block mental influence in order to detect members of the Second Foundation. After many attempts to infer the whereabouts of the Second Foundation from the few clues available, the Foundation believes that the Second Foundation is located on Terminus (the "far end of the galaxy" for a galaxy with the shape circular). The Foundation discovers and kills a group of fifty Second Foundation members, believing they have destroyed the Second Foundation. No longer worrying about that threat, their behavior as a society will tend toward what is anticipated by the Plan.
In fact, the group of fifty were volunteers from Terminus to be captured to give the impression that they comprised the entire Second Founding, so that the Seldon Plan could continue unhindered. However, it is eventually revealed that the Second Foundation is located on Trantor, the former capital of the Galactic Empire. The track "at Star's End" ("at the end of the star") was not literal, but based on an old saying, "All roads lead to Trantor, and that is where all the stars end".
The Limits of the Foundation (1982)
Believing that the Second Foundation still exists (despite the widespread belief that it has been destroyed), young politician Golan Trevize is sent into exile by the current Foundation mayor, Harla Branno, to track down the Second Foundation.; Trevize is accompanied by a scholar named Janov Pelorat. The reason for his belief is that despite the unpredictable impact of the Mule, the Seldon Plan still appears to be moving forward according to Seldon's hologram statements, suggesting that the Second Foundation still exists and is secretly intervening to keep events do not deviate from the Plan. After some conversations with Pelorat, Trevize comes to believe that a mythical planet called Earth may hold the secret to their location. No such planet exists in any database, however various myths and legends refer to it, and Trevize believes that the planet is deliberately kept hidden. Unbeknownst to Trevize and Pelorat, Branno is tracking his ship so that, should they find the Second Foundation, the First Foundation can take military or other action.
Meanwhile, Stor Gendibal, a prominent member of the Second Foundation, discovers a mere local on Trantor who has had a very subtle alteration made to his mind, far more delicate than anything the Second Foundation can do. He concludes that a large force of mentalics must be active in the Galaxy. After the events on Terminus, Gendibal endeavors to track down Trevize, reasoning that by doing so, he may discover who has altered the Trantorian's mind.
Using the few bits of reliable information within the various myths, Trevize and Pelorat discover a planet called Gaia that is inhabited solely by mentalics, to such an extent that all organisms and inanimate objects on the planet share a common consciousness. Both Branno and Gendibal, who have followed Trevize separately, also arrive on Gaia at the same time. Gaia reveals that she has engineered this situation because she wishes to do what is best for humanity, but she cannot be sure what is best. Trevize's purpose, facing the leaders of both the First and Second Foundations and Gaia itself, is to trust to make the best decision among the three main alternatives for the future of the human race: the path of the First Foundation, based in the domain of the physical world and its traditional political organization (ie, Empire); the path of the Second Foundation, based on mentalics and the probable rule of an elite that uses mind control; or Gaia's path of absorption of the entire Galaxy into a shared, harmonious living entity of which all beings, and the Galaxy itself, would be a part.
After Trevize makes his decision about Gaia's path, Gaia's intellect adjusts the minds of Branno and Gendibal so that each believes they have succeeded in an important task. (Branno believes that he has successfully negotiated a treaty binding Sayshell to the Foundation, and Gendibal, now leader of the Second Foundation, believes that the Second Foundation is victorious and should continue as normal.) Trevize continues to search, but no you are sure why you are "sure" that Gaia is the right choice for the future.
Foundation and Earth (1986)
Still unsure of his decision, Trevize continues his search for Earth along with Pelorat and an advanced-minded local from Gaia known as Blissenobiarella (usually referred to simply as Bliss). Finally, Trevize finds three sets of coordinates that are very old. Adjusting them for time, he notices that his ship's computer does not list any planets in the vicinity of the coordinates. When he physically visits the locations, he rediscovers the forgotten space worlds of Aurora, Solaria, and eventually Melpomenia. After searching and facing different dilemmas on each planet, Trevize has yet to discover any answers.
Aurora and Melpomenia have long been deserted, but Solaria contains a small population that is extremely advanced in the field of mentalics. When the lives of the group are threatened, Bliss uses her abilities (and Gaia's shared intellect) to destroy the Solarian who is about to kill them. This leaves only a small boy to be executed, which Bliss makes the decision to keep the boy for as they quickly escape the planet.
Eventually, Trevize discovers Earth, but, again, there are no satisfactory answers for him (it's also long since deserted). However, Trevize realizes that the answer may not lie on Earth, but on Earth's satellite: the Moon. Approaching the planet, they are drawn into the Moon's core, where they encounter a robot named R. Daneel Olivaw.
Olivaw explains that he has been instrumental in guiding human history for thousands of years, having provided the impetus for Seldon to create psychohistory and also the creation of Gaia, but now he is near the end of his ability to keep up. itself and it will soon stop working. Despite having replaced his positronic brain (containing 20,000 years of memories), he will die shortly. He explains that no other robotic brain can be devised to replace the current one, or to allow it to continue helping for the benefit of humanity. However, some additional time can be bought to ensure humanity's long-term benefit by fusing Olivaw's mind with the organic intellect of a human, in this case, the intellect of the boy the group rescued on Solaria.
Once again, Trevize finds himself torn between whether having Olivaw merge with the boy's superior intellect would be in the best interest of the galaxy. The decision is left ambiguous (although it is probably a 'yes') as it is implied that the mind meld may benefit the child, but may have sinister intentions.
Development and Themes
The first stories were inspired by Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The plot of the series centers on the growth and expansion of the Foundation, against a backdrop of the "decline and fall of the Galactic Empire". The themes of Asimov's stories were also influenced by the political trend of science fiction fandom, associated with the Futurians, known as Michelism.
The focus of the books is the trends through which a civilization might progress, seeking specifically to analyze its progress, using history as precedent. Although many science fiction novels like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 do this, their focus is on how current trends in society can come to fruition and act as a moral allegory. of the modern world. The Foundation Series, on the other hand, looks at trends in a broader scope, dealing with the evolution and adaptation of society rather than human and cultural qualities at a given time. In this, Asimov was modeled after Thucydides' work, History of the Peloponnesian War, as he once acknowledged.
Furthermore, the concept of psychohistory, which gives the events of history a sense of rational fatalism, leaves little room for moralizing. Hari Seldon himself hopes that his plan will "reduce 30,000 years of dark years and barbarism to a single millennium," a goal of exceptional moral gravity. However, the events within it are often treated as inevitable and necessary, rather than deviations from the greater good. For example, the Foundation gradually slides into oligarchy and dictatorship before the appearance of the galactic conqueror, known as the Mule, who was able to succeed through the random chance of telepathic mutation. But for the most part, the book treats the purpose of the Seldon Plan as unquestionable, and that slippage is necessary in it, rather than reflecting on whether slippage is generally positive or negative.
The books also wrestle with the idea of individualism. Hari Seldon's Plan is often treated as an inevitable mechanism of society, a vast mindless herd mentality of trillions of humans across the galaxy. Many in the series fight him, only to fail. However, the Plan itself depends on the cunning of individuals like Salvor Hardin and Hober Mallow to make wise decisions that take advantage of trends. On the other hand, the Mule, the only individual with mental powers, overthrows the Foundation and nearly destroys the Seldon Plan with his unforeseen special abilities. To repair the damage the Mule inflicts, the Second Foundation deploys a plan that relies on individual reactions. Psychohistory is based on group tendencies and cannot accurately enough predict the effects of extraordinary and unpredictable individuals, and as originally presented, the purpose of the Second Foundation was to counteract this flaw. Later novels would identify the uncertainties of the Plan that remained at Seldon's death as the main reason for the existence of the Second Foundation, which (unlike the First) had retained the ability to research and further develop psychohistory.
Asimov tried to end the series with Second Foundation. However, due to the anticipated thousands of years until the rise of the next Empire (of which only a few hundred had elapsed), the series lacked a sense of closure. For decades, he was pressured by fans to write a sequel. In 1982, after a 30-year hiatus, Asimov gave up and wrote what was at the time a fourth volume: The Limits of the Foundation. This was followed soon after by Fundación y Tierra. Taking place some 500 years after Seldon, this novel ties up all the loose ends and ties all of his novels from the robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation series into one story. He also opens a new line of thought in the last twelve pages about Galaxia, a galaxy inhabited by a single collective mind. This concept was never further explored. According to his widow Janet Asimov (in her biography of Isaac, It's Been a Good Life), he had no idea how to continue after Foundation and Earth, for which started writing the prequels.
Asimov's imprecise future history
In the spring of 1955, Asimov published a future history of humanity in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine based on his thought processes about the Foundation universe at the time of his life. According to the publication, "the outline was not originally drawn up as a consistent pattern and only includes about a quarter of his total writings." Because of this, the dating in the Foundation Series is approximate and inconsistent.
Asimov estimates his Foundation Series to take place nearly 50,000 years in the future, with Hari Seldon born in AD 47,000. Around this time, the future Emperor Cleon I is born in the Imperial capital, Trantor, 78 years before the Foundation Era (FE, Foundation Era) and the events of the Original Foundation Trilogy. After Cleon inherits the crown, the mathematician Hari Seldon arrives on Trantor from Helicon to deliver his theory of psychohistory that predicts the fall of the empire, triggering the events of Prelude to the Founding. To the Foundation picks up the story a few years later, with the emperor assassinated and Seldon retiring from politics.
At the beginning of the Foundation Era, the events of the original novel Foundation (first published in Astounding Science Fiction as a series of short stories) take place., which is where this Era actually begins. According to Asimov, he intended this to occur around AD 47,000. BC, with the Empire in decline as it battles the rising Foundation, which emerges as the dominant power a few centuries later. Thus begins the events of Foundation and Empire, including the unforeseen rise of the Mule, who defeats the Foundation thanks to his mutant abilities. The events of the Second Foundation chronicle the search for and defeat of the Mule by the Second Foundation, and his conflict with the remnants of the Foundation original, avoiding the dark years. Asimov estimates that the Mule rises and falls sometime around AD 47,300. C.
Foundation Boundaries takes place 500 years after the establishment of the Foundation, outside of the original trilogy of novels. Foundation and Earth continues immediately after, with humanity choosing and justifying a third path distinct from the opposing visions of the two Foundations. According to Asimov, the Second Galactic Empire is established in AD 48,000. C., 1,000 years after the events of the first novel.
Asimov himself commented that the inside story of his fiction was "actually invented ad hoc. My cross-references between the novels are included when they occur to me and do not come from a systematized story....If any reader reviews my stories carefully and discovers that my citations are internally inconsistent, I can only say that I am not surprised".
Cultural Impact
Impact on Nonfiction
In Learned Optimism, psychologist Martin Seligman identifies the Foundation Series as one of the most important influences in his professional life, due to the possibility of a predictive sociology based on psychological principles. He also claims the first successful prediction of a major historical (sociological) event, in the 1988 US election, and attributes it specifically to a psychological principle.
In his 1996 book To Renew America, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich wrote that he was influenced by reading the Foundation Trilogy in high school.
Paul Krugman, winner of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, credits the Foundation Series with focusing his attention on economics, as the closest extant science to psychohistory.
Businessman and entrepreneur Elon Musk lists this series among his career inspirations. When Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster launched into space on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, among other items it carried a copy from the Foundation Series stored in memory crystal Superman.
Stating that it "provides a useful summary of some of the dynamics of distant imperial Rome", Carl Sagan in 1978 listed the Foundation Series as an example of how science fiction "may convey bits, hints, and phrases of knowledge unknown or inaccessible to the reader". In the nonfiction PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Journey, Sagan referred to a Galactic Encyclopedia in the episodes "Galactic Encyclopedia" and "Who speaks for the Earth?".
Awards
In 1966, the Foundation Trilogy beat out other science fiction and fantasy series by receiving a special Hugo Award for Best Series of All Time. Finalists for the award were Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Series, Robert A. Heinlein's Story of the Future series, E. E. Smith and J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. The Foundation Series was the only award-winning series until the establishment of the "best series" category.; in 2017. Asimov himself wrote that he assumed the unique award had been created to honor The Lord of the Rings, and was surprised when he won his work.
The series has won three other Hugo Awards. The Limits of the Foundation won the award for best novel in 1983 and was a bestseller for almost a year. Retrospective Hugo Awards were given in 1996 and 2018, respectively, for "The Mule" (most of Foundation and Empire) for Best Novel (1946) and "Foundation" (the first story written for the series and the second chapter of the first novel) for Best Short Story (1943).
Impact on fiction and entertainment
Science fiction parodies, such as Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Harry Harrison's Bill the Galactic Hero, often show clear influences from < i>Foundation. For example, "The Guide" of the former is a parody of the Galactic Encyclopedia, and the series actually mentions the encyclopedia by name, noting that it is rather "dry"; and, consequently, it sells fewer copies than the guide; the latter also features the ultra-urbanized Imperial planet Helior, often parodying the logistics that such a city-planet would require, but which Asimov's novel minimizes when describing Trántor.[citation needed ]
The story "Marius" from 1957 that launched Poul Anderson's early future story, the Psychotechnical League, clearly shows the influence of Asimov's Foundation, though it moved from the far future of a collapsing Galactic Empire to a far future close to a late 20th century Earth. struggling to recover from the devastation of a nuclear World War III. In this situation, the Finnish professor Valti initiates the science of psychodynamics, which makes it possible to predict the future mathematically, and the Psychotechnical Institute makes use of Valti's formulas to "orient" and subtly manipulate the emerging world government. The similarity to Seldon and the Foundation is obvious, and Anderson didn't try to hide it either.
Frank Herbert also wrote Dune as a counterpoint to Foundation. Tim O'Reilly in his monograph on Herbert wrote that "Dune is clearly a commentary on the Foundation Trilogy . Herbert has taken a look at the same imaginative situation that Asimov's classic sparked—the decline of a galactic empire—and recast it in a way that builds on different assumptions and suggests radically different conclusions. The twist that he has introduced in Dune is that the Mule, not the Foundation, is his hero.
In 1995, Donald Kingsbury wrote "Historical Crisis," which he later expanded into a novel, Psychohistorical Crisis. It takes place about 2,000 years after Founding, after the founding of the Second Galactic Empire. It is set in the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series, in quite a bit of detail, but with virtually all of the specific Foundation names either changed (for example, Kalgan becomes Lakgan) or avoided (psychohistory is created by an unnamed, but often referenced Founder). The novel explores the ideas of psychohistory in a number of new directions, inspired by more recent developments in mathematics and data science, as well as new ideas from science fiction itself.
In 1998, the novel Spectre (part of the Shatnerverse series) by William Shatner and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens states that the divergent path of the Mirror Universe has been studied by the Seldon Institute of Psychohistory.
The oboe-like holophone in Matt Groening's animated television series Futurama is directly based on the "Visi-Sonor" that Magnifico plays in Foundation and Empire. The "Visi-Sonor" also appears in an episode of Special Unit 2, where a boy's television character plays an instrument that induces mind control over children.[citation needed ]
During the 2006-2007 Marvel Comics Civil War crossover, in Fantastic Four #542, Mr. Fantastic revealed his own attempt at developing the psychohistory, saying he was inspired by reading the Foundation Series.
According to lead singer Ian Gillan, the hard rock band Deep Purple's song The Mule is based on the Foundation character: "Yes, The Mule was inspired by Asimov. It's been a while, but I'm sure you've made the right connection... Asimov was required reading in the '60s.
Accommodations
Radius
An eight-part radio adaptation, The Foundation Trilogy, of the original trilogy, with sound design by BBC Radiophonic Workshop, was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1973, one of the first BBC radio drama series that was done in stereo. A rerun on BBC 7 began in July 2003.
Adapted by Patrick Tull (episodes 1-4) and Mike Stott (episodes 5-8), the dramatization was directed by David Cain and starred William Eedle as Hari Seldon, with Geoffrey Beevers as Gaal Dornick, Lee Montague as Salvor Hardin, Julian Glover as Hober Mallow, Dinsdale Landen as Bel Riose, Maurice Denham as Ebling Mis, and Prunella Scales as Lady Callia.
Cinema
By 1998, New Line Cinema had spent $1.5 million developing a film version of the Foundation Trilogy. The failure to develop a new franchise was one of the reasons the studio signed on to produce The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
On July 29, 2008, New Line Cinema co-founders Bob Shaye and Michael Lynne announced that they had signed on to produce an adaptation of the trilogy with their company Unique Pictures for Warner Brothers. However, Columbia Pictures (Sony) successfully bid for the screen rights on January 15, 2009, and later hired Roland Emmerich to direct and produce. Michael Wimer was named co-producer. Two years later, the studio hired Dante Harper to adapt the books. This project did not materialize and HBO acquired the rights when they became available in 2014.
Television
- Foundation (2021), series created by David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman
- In November 2014, TheWrap reported that Jonathan Nolan was writing and producing a television series based on Trilogy of the Foundation for HBO. Nolan confirmed his participation in an event at Paley Center on April 13, 2015.
- In June 2017, Deadline reported that Skydance Media would produce a television series. In August 2018 it was announced that Apple TV+ had made a direct order of 10 episodes of the series. However, on April 18, 2019, Josh Friedman left the project as co-guionist and co-author-productor. This was apparently planned, with Friedman or screenwriter David Goyer coming out and the other staying. On June 22, 2020, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the series would be launched in 2021. On March 13, 2020, Apple suspended all active films in its programs due to the outbreak of COVID-19; the film was resumed on October 6, 2020.
- The series is filmed in Troy Studios, Limerick, Ireland, and the budget was expected to be approximately $50 million. The first two episodes were released on September 24, 2021. Metacritic gave the first season a weighted average score of 63 out of 100 based on 22 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".