Mario the lone bookwolf's Reviews > 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.

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