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Foundation (novel series)
The Foundation series is a science fiction novel series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories and novellas in 1942–1950, and subsequently in three novels in 1951–1953, for nearly thirty years the series was widely known as The Foundation Trilogy: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953). It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov later added new volumes, with two sequels, Foundation's Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1986), and two prequels, Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993).
The premise of the stories is that in the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, the mathematician Hari Seldon devises the theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematics of sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting 30,000 years before a second empire arises. Although the momentum of the Empire's fall is too great to stop, Seldon devises a plan by which "the onrushing mass of events must be deflected just a little" to eventually limit this interregnum to just one thousand years. The novels describe some of the dramatic events of those years as they are shaped by the underlying political and social mechanics of Seldon's Plan.
The original trilogy of novels collected a series of eight short stories and novellas published in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas in Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and was invented spontaneously on his way to meet with editor John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concepts of the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the civilization-preserving Foundations, and psychohistory. Asimov wrote these early stories in his West Philadelphia apartment when he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.
The first four stories were collected, along with a new introductory story, and published by Gnome Press in 1951 as Foundation. The later stories were published in pairs by Gnome as Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the "Foundation Trilogy", as the series is still known.
In 1981, Asimov was persuaded by his publishers to write a fourth novel, which became Foundation's Edge (1982).
Four years later, Asimov followed up with another sequel, Foundation and Earth (1986), which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993), published after his 1992 death. During the two-year lapse between writing the sequels and prequels, Asimov had tied in his Foundation series with his various other series, creating a single unified universe. The basic link is mentioned in Foundation and Earth: an obscure myth about a first wave of space settlements with robots and then a second without. The idea is the one developed in Robots of Dawn, which, in addition to showing the way that the second wave of settlements was to be allowed, illustrates the benefits and shortcomings of the first wave of settlements and their so-called C/Fe (carbon/iron, signifying humans and robots together) culture. In this same book, the word psychohistory is used to describe the nascent idea of Seldon's work. Some of the drawbacks to this style of colonization, also called Spacer culture, are also exemplified by the events described all the way back in 1957's The Naked Sun.
The link between the Robot and Foundation universes was tightened by letting the robot R. Daneel Olivaw – originally introduced in The Caves of Steel – live on for tens of thousands of years and play a major role behind the scenes in both the Galactic Empire in its heyday and in the rise of the two Foundations to take its place.
Set in a future interstellar empire spanning the galaxy, the Foundation series follows the consequences of "psychohistory," a scientific discipline developed by mathematician Hari Seldon. Psychohistory predicts the inevitable fall of the millennia-old Galactic Empire and a subsequent dark age lasting thirty thousand years. To shorten this period of chaos, Seldon establishes the Foundation, a colony of scientists and engineers located on the remote planet Terminus at the edge of the galaxy. Its mission is to preserve knowledge and lay the groundwork for a second, stronger empire.
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Foundation (novel series)
The Foundation series is a science fiction novel series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories and novellas in 1942–1950, and subsequently in three novels in 1951–1953, for nearly thirty years the series was widely known as The Foundation Trilogy: Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), and Second Foundation (1953). It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov later added new volumes, with two sequels, Foundation's Edge (1982) and Foundation and Earth (1986), and two prequels, Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993).
The premise of the stories is that in the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, the mathematician Hari Seldon devises the theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematics of sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a dark age lasting 30,000 years before a second empire arises. Although the momentum of the Empire's fall is too great to stop, Seldon devises a plan by which "the onrushing mass of events must be deflected just a little" to eventually limit this interregnum to just one thousand years. The novels describe some of the dramatic events of those years as they are shaped by the underlying political and social mechanics of Seldon's Plan.
The original trilogy of novels collected a series of eight short stories and novellas published in Astounding Science-Fiction magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas in Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and was invented spontaneously on his way to meet with editor John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concepts of the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the civilization-preserving Foundations, and psychohistory. Asimov wrote these early stories in his West Philadelphia apartment when he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.
The first four stories were collected, along with a new introductory story, and published by Gnome Press in 1951 as Foundation. The later stories were published in pairs by Gnome as Foundation and Empire (1952) and Second Foundation (1953), resulting in the "Foundation Trilogy", as the series is still known.
In 1981, Asimov was persuaded by his publishers to write a fourth novel, which became Foundation's Edge (1982).
Four years later, Asimov followed up with another sequel, Foundation and Earth (1986), which was followed by the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993), published after his 1992 death. During the two-year lapse between writing the sequels and prequels, Asimov had tied in his Foundation series with his various other series, creating a single unified universe. The basic link is mentioned in Foundation and Earth: an obscure myth about a first wave of space settlements with robots and then a second without. The idea is the one developed in Robots of Dawn, which, in addition to showing the way that the second wave of settlements was to be allowed, illustrates the benefits and shortcomings of the first wave of settlements and their so-called C/Fe (carbon/iron, signifying humans and robots together) culture. In this same book, the word psychohistory is used to describe the nascent idea of Seldon's work. Some of the drawbacks to this style of colonization, also called Spacer culture, are also exemplified by the events described all the way back in 1957's The Naked Sun.
The link between the Robot and Foundation universes was tightened by letting the robot R. Daneel Olivaw – originally introduced in The Caves of Steel – live on for tens of thousands of years and play a major role behind the scenes in both the Galactic Empire in its heyday and in the rise of the two Foundations to take its place.
Set in a future interstellar empire spanning the galaxy, the Foundation series follows the consequences of "psychohistory," a scientific discipline developed by mathematician Hari Seldon. Psychohistory predicts the inevitable fall of the millennia-old Galactic Empire and a subsequent dark age lasting thirty thousand years. To shorten this period of chaos, Seldon establishes the Foundation, a colony of scientists and engineers located on the remote planet Terminus at the edge of the galaxy. Its mission is to preserve knowledge and lay the groundwork for a second, stronger empire.