Isaac Asimov: Foundation and the pre-planned history? Do any of you see similarity with events?

Another thread going down into the abyss?

I see it to a degree but more as how the first foundation would have wanted it and not as Daneel/Gaia nor the Second foundation

How about the role of the "Mule"? I think we have more than one of that all over the world.

Nice links...

Would you consider sharing more details for those of us who are not familiar with it or is this a private club?

You know I have this book and have been trying to read it since high school.

Haven't quite yet got into it yet.

I thought Gaia most interesting, and was recently wondering when we'd come up with walnut sized nuclear reactors. US is currently running their Nimitz class carriers on reactors that need refueling every 25 years.

Preplanned history-like the 2nd foundation? I suppose it's possible. The span of time is so great that I guess we may never know. Consider the stories of the lost civilizations of Mu, Atlantis, the references in the Vedas of airships and nuclear type weaponry, the evidence of advanced past civilizations, all the archealogical finds that do not fit in with current archealogical theory......

Considering our position on the outer edges of the galaxy... I suppose we could be like Anacreon or Terminus.....and the legends of our past are muddied memories of the last vestiges of a shrinking empire. If there was a second foundation, we would never know. Daneel could be Jesus, Akenhaton, Richard the Lionhearted, Trsla---literally anyone of historical signifcance whose life has produced social/scientifc change

We don't have Hari Seldon and the time chamber, or could that be what's under the Sphinx?


So there ya go!


I love that book series!

*Tesla*

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order are Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.
The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future.
Using these techniques, Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting thirty thousand years before a second great empire arises. Seldon's psychohistory also foresees an alternative where the intermittent period will last only one thousand years. To ensure his vision of a second great Empire comes to fruition, Seldon creates two Foundations—small, secluded havens of all human knowledge—at "opposite ends of the galaxy".
The focus of the series is on the First Foundation and its attempts to overcome various obstacles during the formation and installation of the Second Empire, all the while being silently guided by the unknown specifics of The Seldon Plan.
The series is best known for the Foundation Trilogy, which comprises the books Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. While the term "Foundation Series" can be used specifically for the seven Foundation books, it can also be used more generally to include the Robot series and Empire series, which are set in the same fictional universe, but in earlier time periods. If all works are included, in total, there are fifteen novels and dozens of short stories written by Asimov, and six novels written by other authors after his death, expanding the time spanned in the original trilogy (roughly 550 years) by more than twenty thousand years. The series is highly acclaimed, winning the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966.[1]

Thank you AC for sharing your thoughts...it made me realize different people can get different insights from the same book: you focused more on the advancement in technology...what remained in me is the scary thought of unnoticeable control over our fate. I think Asimov - being likely an Atheist, and died too early to see the new developments in quantum physics left the human energy field out of consideration.

Not a private club at all...:-) thank you for stopping by.
Wikipedia's article tells it all, if you don't want to read the books.

Last Edited by emerald_glow on 05/05/2012 12:19 AM

What are the "seeds?" I read Prelude but didn't get to the others

I read the foundation troligy when I was just a boy. Until yesterday,while I was working,I had not thought about the similarities with current events. Then I got home and read that someone else had my very same thought. Coincidence? Anyway I really think Asimov wanted to tell some of his readers what he knew. That makes us the few who were told many years ago what these years are showing us.

you named it exactly| Trolligy|

Isaac Asimov aint he the one dat the apple fell on its head?

That was Newton ...Isaac - Isaac, as in "Sugar - sugar"

who is foundation and who is the mule

Hi, Italian:-) Synchronicities are chasing me these days like never before.

I loved the Foundation Trilogy.

Read it many years ago, when I was about 16.

The "Mule" was the Joker in the pack, as I remember, and Hari Seldon had no answer for him.

Dat's right!

He be da graviticalationist mofo!

[link to en.wikipedia.org]


The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order are Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.
The premise of the series is that mathematician Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory, a concept of mathematical sociology (analogous to mathematical physics). Using the laws of mass action, it can predict the future, but only on a large scale; it is error-prone on a small scale. It works on the principle that the behaviour of a mass of people is predictable if the quantity of this mass is very large (equal to the population of the galaxy, which has a population of quadrillions of humans, inhabiting millions of star systems). The larger the number, the more predictable is the future....(click on the link above for more, or just read the books)
.The Mule was a person who didn't fit into the mathematical model: a mutant of the species with extraordinary abilities, and behavior.

Last Edited by emerald_glow on 05/05/2012 05:58 PM

As I remember they were groups of selected people located on distant places unaware of each other or their purpose, working towards Seldon's plan through several generations.

Last Edited by emerald_glow on 05/05/2012 05:55 PM

rhetorical question isnt rhetorical

Jezz! When did it become a Septology?

I only remember reading Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation.

I think it is the case of pulling seven skins off the same fox for profit. Likely it was not even him who authored the rest.

It's pretty wierd that Asimov was talking about a group of people working with the intent of steering and guiding humans towards a new glorious empire and,today we find ourselves overwhelmed by all the proofs we can see,in plain site,of a similar group trying to create a "world goverment". In Asimov's books a part of the very same foundation was destroyed to make sure history would go as predicted. This is one thing that we might verify,should a part of the elite get wiped out in the next future.
I think Asimov,just like Arthur C. Clark,was one of the elite-illuminati,call them whatever you want. The thing is Asimov and others were clearly trying to tell the ones who could understand what was to unfold in the years to come. Why some thought the same thing in the same day....well...?!

Really? Truly a bit like starseeds then.



It's Clarke... I think the foundation was completely open and honest about its intents and purposes, like Galactic Federation -- or whatever. The Mule doesn't fit tho.

Newton aint he de one who makes dem figgy bars u get at 7-11