ASIMOV : the writer who made science fiction rational

Become a member of the Science Fiction community to continue the discussion

Subscribe to the Science Fiction podcast feed for long-form commentaries on these video essays

Join the Science Fiction community on Facebook

Read the full Foundation saga

Music

[matthieujoly]

This is shortened the right way : "...the human refusal to be reasonable".
Thanks for all the work, Asimov is truly one of the greatest SF novel writer.

[mikesimons]

Nice, enjoyed reading majority of the series during high school. Later came out to San Diego and happened to stop by book store in Bird Rock, La Jolla where Asimov was doing book tour for Prelude to Foundation. Have signed copy, along with others of his.

[ttystikkrocks]

As a lifelong science fiction reader, hard sci-fi enthusiast and fan of Isaac Asimov, it is high time I sit down and read the Foundation series.

[robmsmithdumbhandle]

Man, I joined Damien's channel a year or two ago: I can't believe he hasn't amassed a larger following. He deserves it. His videos are always so well-thought out and made with such care. Thumbs up, as always! Can't wait for your next video, bruh!

[oker]

As far as I can remember, Isaac Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation" was my first book. Carl Sagan's Contact was my . . . third. I think James Gleick's Chaos was my second book actually! Anyways . . .

I forget when I first read I. Asimov's Foundation, but I noticed a copy on my father's bookshelves. My father was a Sputnik kid; he was into Astronomy because of it; but, his idea of going to the Space future was through the Navy! He was kind of Heinlein like more than Asimov. After the Apollo program stopped, he decided the future was not coming, and he dropped science altogether. He decided military was the only reality(again Heinlein), and later just became a total drunk.

But, he had a great library of books - Nigel Henbest's "The Exploding Universe", "Catalog of the Universe", Crease and Mann's "The Second Creation", he even had an original hard cover copy of Arthur Eddington's "The Exploding Universe." "Project Physics, which my high school science teacher actually used. I later, after serving a four year stint in the U.S. Navy, went ahead and read that entire book. It's an amazing book. It's a high school physics book, but it goes through the history of Physics. - Andreade e Silva and G. Lochak's "Quanta." Timothy Ferris "Galaxies." Stanley Livingston's "The High Energy Frontier", and a bunch more stuff like that "Heisenberg's "Physics and Philosophy", and Schroedinger's "What is Life." . . . and Isaac Asimov's "Extraterrestrial Civilizations"(the first Rare Earth Hypothesis book), but anyways . . .

Well, I eventually got around to reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation. I got around to reading a lot of the Asimov Universe - I Robot, Caves of Steel, the Empire novels - Pebble in the Sky/The Stars like Dust. I read all the Foundation except "Foundation and Earth." I did not like the Foundation books after Foundation. I just liked Prelude to Foundation and Foundation.

[judicator]

The foundation TV series is the opposite of what Asimov intended.

[donbroni]

What a treat I just had listening to this!! The combination of your use of generative ai and music in your editing and your ability to abstract out not only the important details but the essence of Asimov's scope, vision, temperament condition for each book, all told in a stoic optimism, sent shivers down my spine, good work !!

[MarcoLandin]

I never thought of the Foundation cycle as an allegory to the American foundation and its threats. Thanks for that insight! Your videos keep getting better and better!

[Cameron_David_]

We need this essay more than ever after the disaster that is the apple+ series.

[davidranderson]

I wouldn't call the Foundation series "hard sci fi." The original distinction between "hard" and "soft" was the same as the old distinction between the "hard" natural sciences and the "soft" social sciences. Foundation is pure social science, examining the rise, fall, and potential rebuilding of a society based on sociology, psychology, economics, politics, and statistical analysis.

I find the Foundation series interesting as it goes along because the stories take the central concept (psychohistory) and keep challenging it and revealing its flaws: Does psychohistory break down if people become aware they are part of this social experiment? Does it continue to work if basic human nature changes in some way and typical reactions are no longer a given? Isn't it possible for people to use the tools of psychohistory for their own private benefit rather than just the public good? Is attempting to direct human development at a civilizational scale inherently limiting human potential rather than supporting it?

[jamessullivan]

I am not a particularly fan of AI art, but l think you blended it perfectly...enjoy this greatly....keep up the great work

[dane]

Nice video, watched the one about the Culture, that was a great one.
Only one thing I would strongly disagree is that Foundation's Edge is the best book of the series as said before it was made under pressure and for financial gain - think Peter Jackson and the Hobbit movies.
The books went from civilization forming future history to sort of two man hi jinks and adventure in the likes of Flash Gordon, exactly what Asimov was not about or more precisely the series was not about.

[joebrooks]

Asimov was a great contributor to Science Fiction, I agree. He seemed to be a benevolent influence, as well. Just my experience in the 1960s, it seemed a lot more young adults read "Starship Troopers" than the Foundation series? I read them both.

I suppose he may have been the first to espouse an all-encompassing galactic civilization and government (EE Smith SF?). This highly unlikely scenario is an analogy to one world government on Earth, I assumed.

A E Van Vogt preceded Asimov by 8 years with a benevolent Earth one world government based on science in his "The World Of Null A." That system lasts for generations before being infiltrated and nearly destroyed by a Galactic government for power and wealth acquisition.

Null A also stresses the importance of learning from history and maintaining the original meanings of words to be able to understand the actual history of human experience. Null A was likely influential in the writing of Nineteen Eighty - Four.

Unfortunately, Asimov's Foundation series (far too optimistic) and Bretton Woods (insanely optimistic) have not withstood the last 70 years as well as The World Of Null A or Nineteen Eighty-Four!

[iancormie]

The thing that is remarkable bout Asimov's writings is that they are as readable today as they were 70 plus years ago.

[Miata]

Phenomenal review of Foundation and it's place in our world. So much of Azimov's work influenced how I have seen the world over the last 60+ years. Your review and commentary do the subject matter justice.

[mylinuxgr]

Great analysis! Thank you! Now I am going to read all Foundation books from the beginning!

[OrchestrationOnline]

This is an excellent essay Damien - but how can you have failed to mention that the establishment of a scientific religion in the Foundation books was at the insistence of John W. Campbell, and was soundly disliked by Asimov? Or that the creation of The Mule narrative was because Asimov had grown weary writing story after story in which the Foundation won each successive conflict, apparently without trying? These important aspects of the author's feelings about his magnum opus are available in his autobiographical writings. Also, there's a misinterpretation of the plot of Foundation and Earth/Robots and Empire. The Earth's radioactivity is NOT due to squabbling between ideological factions. I won't spoil the plot, but it's not a metaphor for the Cold War of that time; rather, it poses the question of whether human progress requires a Jeffersonian-style robotic plantation economy, or a non-robotic culture of expansion and colonisation in which the human spirit and capabilities are constantly challenged. Asimov favours the latter, obviously.

[alanhilder]

The final foundation story combined the foundation "trilogy" ( yes there were more than 3 books but I also like Douglas Adams ) with another "trilogy" of his and a stand-alone story, whose name eludes me at the moment, ( Monty Python reference ), that included time travel, but only in passing. Daneel is in it from the robot stories, starting in "The Caves of Steel" series.

[EnzoFerenczyo]

I read all the first trilogy in a teenage thrill, along with all of John Wyndham's novels and then devoured my favorite books, THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, ALL four volumes. I found them even more to expand my young imagination. Then onto 1984, which much to my chagrin, , as well as most of the other so-called outlandish, and fantasy engaging ideas, have NOW BECOME REALITY!!!!
I must say I have listened to many reviews and critiques, yours is by far the most incisive and interesting. KUDOS!

[samuelskinner]

The first 6 stories is Hari Seldon gaslighting everyone.

Seldon gets the Foundation exiled and has his followers train the relevant generation. Salvor Hardin is put into place by Seldon (this is the only time a message is given before the crisis is resolved) and he is given enough to understand where Seldon is trying to lead him- he goes from 'lets mass produce nukes' (The Encyclopedists) to 'lets share nuclear technology to uplift everyone (The Mayors). Both crisis's are self-solving and Hardin's is highly passive.

The Merchant Princes covers the 3rd crisis, but Mallow's victory is based upon technological advances since the Foundation was cut off from the Empire; this is not possible to predict.

Which brings us to The General. Seldon could easily predict this- it is the Roman General problem and what he was referring to when he said the Galactic Empire lacked vitality. The reason for the gaslighting, for the Great Plan, for everything is to get over this hump- that of the dying Empire murdering the upstart Foundation. Because the issue is even though Bose is guaranteed to lose, the Foundation isn't guaranteed to win. The Empire could just annex the territory, Bose's second in command could become a warlord, the Foundation could splinter- victory is not guaranteed by grand historical forces.

It is the plan itself that makes them win. They have to believe, their subjects have to believe, the worlds they intend to liberate have to believe, the people they are fighting have to believe, that the Foundation is going to win in the end. So when confronted by impossible odds, the Foundation fights and in the end with their commander executed for treason the expeditionary forces decide the Foundation was right and switch sides AND the Foundation believes them.

Then Asimov wrote additional stories, psychic powers are introduced and we end up with The Evitable Conflict- Galactic Edition.