Foundation (1951)
Foundation is a 1951 psychohistory book written by Isaac Asimov.
Twelve thousand years of Galactic Empire are ending, and one man has done the math. Hari Seldon, master of the new science of psychohistory, has reduced the future of trillions to equations, and they warn of a thirty-thousand-year dark age. His answer is the Foundation, a colony of scholars stranded on the barren rim world of Terminus and charged with preserving human knowledge through the fall. Asimov's first Foundation book gathers linked stories that follow the young settlement through crisis after crisis, where survival owes less to heroes than to the cold logic of history playing out on schedule.
Quick answers
What is Foundation about?
Twelve thousand years of Galactic Empire are ending, and one man has done the math. Hari Seldon, master of the new science of psychohistory, has reduced the future of trillions to equations, and they warn of a thirty-thousand-year dark age. His answer is the Foundation, a colony of scholars stranded on the barren rim world of Terminus and charged with preserving human knowledge through the fall. Asimov's first Foundation book gathers linked stories that follow the young settlement through crisis after crisis, where survival owes less to heroes than to the cold logic of history playing out on schedule.
When was Foundation published?
Foundation was published in 1951.
Who made Foundation?
Foundation was written by Isaac Asimov.
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Foundation in our writing
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A few thoughts on Foundation
Fans of a walled-off community guarding knowledge against a hostile future should try Silo, which runs on the same slow-burn dread. The far-future concept album Deltron 3030 carries a similar melancholy about civilization's long decline. The obvious next step is the Apple TV adaptation Foundation, which dramatizes Seldon's first crisis on Terminus directly.
Underdogs who outwit an empire instead of fighting it
Foundation follows a tiny colony of scholars on the edge of the galaxy who survive one crisis after another through trade, wit and cold calculation rather than armies. Asterix runs on the same joke turned serious, a small holdout that keeps beating a vast empire through cleverness, while Silo, Foundation and Dune all build worlds where the smartest, not the strongest, decide what happens next.
Science fiction worlds quietly run by one shadowy power
Foundation is built on the idea that history has a hidden logic, and that the empire ruling the galaxy is already being outmaneuvered by forces it cannot see. Mass Effect 2, BioShock, BioShock Infinite, Half-Life and Half-Life 2 all drop players into worlds shaped by a controlling power working from the shadows, and Deltron 3030 scores that same fight against a future empire in concept-album form.
Comics that treat history itself as something being engineered
Foundation treats the future of an entire galaxy as a problem that can be modeled and steered by the right kind of science. Watchmen and Phoenix take the same idea into comics, following schemes and lifetimes built to bend history toward a chosen outcome, while Ghost in the Shell, Appleseed and Galaxy Express 999 imagine societies reshaped by the technology and choices of the people running them.