Asimov’s Foundation Series, A Masterpiece of Science Fiction
For me one of the most influential science fiction works has been Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series. I read the original Foundation a little over a year back and loved it. However, I was introduced to the series years before that. My friend summarized it for me and explained some of the intricate details of the story. I never forgot them. It is astonishing that an author was able to assemble a vast universe with countless new technologies, a unique political system, and an epic history spanning centuries all of which was done before space travel or the personal computer.
Foundation is about scientific knowledge not as an innovator of gadgets but as a predictor of the future of humanity. Hari Seldon is able to predict the future of the empire and its end, and discovers only one solution to the eventual anarchy that will end its reign.
To apply science to political and social forces as a means of diagnosing history must’ve been a first. The Foundation and its adherents couldn’t predict the future of any specific individual, it could only predict the fate of nations. The science was called psychohistory, combining a “soft” science and a social science. I can think of no other examples of this kind of interdisciplinary blending.
It is also about the power of history. In contrast, the traditional American story is that of the underdog overcoming impossible odds to change the world. It is fiercely individualistic and insists that one person can change history. Asimov’s Foundation Series takes a non-American approach, creating characters that struggle to find a way to survive the tides of history while conceding their inability to change it. This worldview is more common throughout the world, particularly in cultures that strongly believe in predetermination, tradition, and destiny.
The series is not about people, places, or any particular scientific innovation. Its scope is wider, covering the events shaping a galactic empire. This makes it dry, undramatic, and maybe a little short on details. As a regular novel it is probably a dull read. However, if one takes into account its creativeness when it was first published along with the intellectual power necessary to put together such a grand design, one can truly appreciate the series as part of the canon of science fiction.
For me it is up there with the Dune Chronicles. As cynical old man might say, “they don’t make them like they used to.”
Jacob
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