Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > The Foundation Trilogy

Is you´re a psycho and like history like me, it´s the perfect series

Foundation

Psychohistory and predetermination have become driving forces of the Sci-Fi genre for very good reasons

AI, Big Data, internet, and digitalization of everything made it possible
Psychohistory itself has many real-life counterparts, I won´t even start counting. Just think of everything that gives one the possibility of predicting the future like statistics, AI, mathematics, etc that is combined with knowledge about all of the history of humankind and already available data. It´s exactly how the world is long-time managed today and Asimov saw it coming.

Modern real life psychohistorians
A big data analyst, spin doctor, etc. is in a certain way already a psychohistorian, because she/he predicts different periods of time of the future with sometimes great accuracy. And that is just what humans can do, a sophisticated AI may be the ultimate oracle, the all-knowing mixture of Cassandra and Nostradamus.

Epic knowledge battle between humanities and natural sciences
An allegory of the competition of soft vs hard science and in this special case, they are worthless without each other and no one can really get stronger without the other. Great use of this fact for the plot too, as the so highly developed technical foundation can´t survive without the soft sciences. Although, super psi forces could probably be made both ways, by meditating or by brain implants, but both combined may be the best way. Onsidedness, too mental biological, or too high tech machine driven, is always bad.

5 short stories combined into one of the funniest mirrors of human society
Each one is dealing with another form, satire of, or smart solution for the stereotypical stone age, feudal, neoliberal, extremist, ideologic, theistic, craziness. With science and smartness, many of these maladies can, if not cured, at least be contained to not spread the mental virus infection to other planets and finally the whole galaxy. To see which badass non violent ways the protagonists find for new diplomatic solutions of avoiding war and escalation is very satisfying. One could even go so far as to even see some prophecies for real life Mutual Assured Destruction and similar stuff, but that would be a bit too far fetched.

See the impact in dozens and hundreds of works of sci fi that have been inspired by Asimov and why there is no substitute
It´s a bit like with Tolkien and fantasy, without Asimov, sci-fi might look completely different and especially not as fascinating as it is. Especially because the other players in the game at this founding time can´t reach the same entertainment levels mixed with philosophy and satire. The only great and also famous titan at the same level is Clarke with very heavy mental overloads while reading and sometimes feeling more like work or learning than entertainment, brrrrr. Dick and Heinlein simply aren´t that great writers and the pretty unknown Lem and Capek are as badass difficult to read as Clarke. Social sci-fi has some pearls, but because this is a completely different (also pretty unknown and underrated) sci- fi subgenre than space opera, military sci-fi, and sci-fa, comparisons aren´t possible. The focus on audience and thereby writing style is just too different.

When rereading a third time, I´ll try to fully fill all the grandiosity in this review
But it´s simply too much and I´m too lazy. Not just all the brilliant story ideas in the first part and how they develop or reappear during the rest of the series, but all the deeper stuff, allegories, and metaphors, the cynicism, wit, and humor in both plot and the characters. All just simply at a level that it could hardly ever be reached again except by some new geniuses. But comparing them with Asimov and how they modified, darkened, or continued his legacy would be as much avoidable work as mentioned expanding this review to ridiculous length because, you know. Procrastination until resurgence or until it´s too late forever, but at least no stress or pressure.

Foundation and Empire

The expanding, good empire comes to crush corruption before decadence kicks in again

It´s a bit as if the dark force in Star Wars had a good motivation
Of course, imperialism normally isn´t a good thing, but what if not just the intentions are good, but the practical implementation too? History has made most humans so cynic regarding one, big, uniting force that it´s close to unimaginable that it could really be meant as an attempt to make the universe a paradise. And the Foundation isn´t violent and without in-your-face wars, they are hidden diplomats, manipulating everything from national to geo to star politics to slowly transform degenerated empires. That concept expanded to

Many other utopic sci-fi series
For instance, Peter F Hamilton, Alastair Reynolds before the fall of the empire, David Brin, etc. who modified the idea of paradises, expanded to thousands of planets, multi k years in the future, and other realities. Of course, there always has to be an antagonistic force that is an equivalent of humankind's darkest ages, but that doesn´t mean that a post scarcity bio nano fueled Clarketech heaven on earth, other planets, space habitats, spaceships, etc. isn´t possible. This

Extreme optimism combined with philosophical satire
Is an Asimov trademark. Especially in contrast to the far not as good and grim Heinlein and Dick, who had both lost hope in humankind and had serious personal issues and problems, Asimov was a prodigy who burned for ethics, humanitarian ideals, and morality. His whole work is a tour de force of mind blowing, clever riddles, some clear, some well hidden, and especially when rereading and knowing the bigger context to come, one can just wtf in awe like heck. I don´t know

Any other sci-fi writer who handled it all together
The big, space opera picture, the mentioned wit, and philosophy, thereby generated criticism and deep humor. I´m just realizing that optimism and building utopias are generally rare things in sci fi, maybe because it´s probably also much more difficult to write. Much of Asimovs´ work comes with long passages of just brain twisting complexity without any real action or plot dynamic, just dialogues, introspections, and complex, interwoven plots one has to focus on to follow and get the whole picture. Much of this may simply also be too much work for readers who just want to enjoy an entertaining book and maybe Asimov reduced the possible, maximum capacity of readers by just being too ingenious and overachieving. He would have loved that irony and kind of manifested the chaos factor too in.

The Mule
Psychohistory is perfect, has no flaws, it´s the ideal combination of everything good science can do, a victory of research, knowledge, and especially interdisciplinary work. That´s what one thinks after the first part of the book, The General. The problem comes with a new factor nobody saw coming, something believed impossible or so unlikely nobody had it on the map except for esoteric, paraphysical, alternative weirdos. But guess what, they were right, because one individual with special forces can change the course of psychohistory.

Second Foundation

The Seldon crisis is a literal mule mind penetration

Prelude, First Foundation, mule, Second Foundation, etc. scissors stone paper style
Asimov likes to introduce new plot twists by not just showing a new antagonist or meta event, but by using the weak spots of one ideology or person to fundamentally change the red line. I´ve completely lost track of how often and in detail he did it over the whole series, because I´ve just read the best rated 3 other parts before, during, and after (or somewhat like that, also lost track of that) besides the original series. However, one doesn´t see it coming, which creates an incredible cliffhanger wtf moment each time it happens.

How many mutants does sci-fi need?
As many as there are stars, because they are what makes the genre so unpredictable, while still trying to explain and show serious and scientific future tech and social concepts. But by adding this kind of, still, fantasy, each abnormality doesn´t just has the potential for big changes at the moment, but for reproducing, mixing with the original species, and thereby changing the course of evolution. (Except one is infertile of course, haha). And that´s the reason why

Humanities and soft sciences should never be underestimated
While the first part of the series is totally serious science business with no science fantasy, except one deems psychohistory itself unscientific and a pseudo- and para science, the second part is already questioning the superiority of hard STEM power. In the final climax of the original series, fantasy style humanities and soft biological brain power are even superior to Clarketech. Maybe it was Asimovs´intention to

Make STEM science a bit more open minded regarding alternative explanations
A scientist himself, Asimov maybe wanted to open borders for more interdisciplinary science. Not the voodoo stuff, but especially the things we simply don´t understand. As a visionary dreamer, he maybe somewhat saw all these quantum nano irritations, astrophysical Space Webb space telescope mysteries, unexplainable reactions and processes in more and more things we see inside us and billions of years in the past in the stars, coming. Back then, it was just an assumption of some of the more progressive and alternative scientists who dared to question the dogmas, today, the facts are on the table. That´s why he

Didn´t just inspire everyday people to question everything, but certainly a bunch of scientists too
I guess I did already mention the legions of writers who name him as a core motivation and inspiration in one or another review of his amazing work. But each mind opened to the limitation of our current state of the art high tech achievements could be the next „Fill in your favorite prodigy science rockstar“. Because who says that it´s impossible that in 1, 1000, or 100.000 k, etc. years a multidimensional, quantum tunneling, time traveling, etc. entity can´t exist? Some psi powers seem nothing compared to that and to definitively say forever impossible is a typical human style of arrogance, and megalomania to assume that one's own incapability explains everything.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
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