Resumo de Foundation - Isaac Asimov

A truly seminal work, Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy fertilized the SF field with a potency still felt today. Originally published as a series of short stories in John Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction beginning in 1942, the trilogy retains its serial structure, as shown by the table of contents below:

Foundation 1951
Part I: The Psychohistorians
Part II: The Encyclopedists
Part III: The Mayors
Part IV: The Traders
Part V: The Merchant Princes

Foundation and Empire 1952
Part I: The General
Part II: The Mule

Second Foundation 1953
Part I: Search by the Mule
Part II: Search by the Foundation

PREMISE and PLOT
It's difficult to review a series and refrain from divulging too much of the plot. It is especially so for the Foundation trilogy since it is structured not as three books, but as nine stories. I can set up the premise of each story, but to do so for succeeding stories would be to include spoilers of preceding stories. On the other hand, giving the premise behind only the first story would be a very small offering, since the remaining eight all take place at increasing distances of time, space, and character from the first.

In The Psychohistorians, Hari Seldon is introduced. He is the genius behind the revolutionary theories of psychohistory, including the concept that cultural and sociological indicators can be assessed and calculated in such a way as to mathematically predict the course of human history. Using this new science, Seldon realizes that the Galactic Empire is unavoidably doomed, and its fall will cause a 30,000 year long dark age before a second empire rises. He calculates that this period can be reduced to 1,000 years if certain steps are taken, and he takes them.

Not surprisingly, psychohistory proves to be the ultimate tool of manipulation. The entire trilogy is the history of the Foundation which Seldon establishes to quicken humanity's recovery from the empire's fall. Throughout the trilogy Asimov keeps surprising us, these twists cropping up as stages of Seldon's plan come to fruition in ways the characters of later generations never imagined. To muddy the waters, there are also twists arising from the times Seldon's plan doesn't quite work out how he expected.

The fall of the empire happens quickly, and in The Encyclopedists the Foundation Seldon has established on a remote planet finds itself surrounded by aggressive neighbors now free of imperial restraints. The Foundation considers itself a repository of knowledge but soon learns its larger role, and of the periodic crises Seldon foresaw will threaten its success. Without the pax imperia, the Foundation must use its own scant resources to defend itself.

Foundation and Empire picks up with the Foundation well in control of its area of space. But it's beginning to encounter the remnant of the old empire, which is still a powerful adversary. In The General the inevitable war for dominance breaks out between the fading empire and the expanding Foundation. Then, in The Mule, Seldon's plan is derailed. Psychohistory, like all statistical sciences, cannot predict the individual, only the society. But an entirely unpredictable and remarkably powerful individual called the Mule appears and single-handedly changes the course which Seldon had set for human history.

CHARACTERS
There's plenty of Asimov's stock characters in these stories. The witty and charming scientist who manipulates people into following the path of wisdom because explaining it to them would be too much work, and there'd be no telling whether they'd be smart enough to do it anyway. The similarly witty and charming trader or politician or general who similarly affects the course of history, this time to the befuddlement of establishment scientists, who of course aren't of the witty and charming variety. On the other hand, there are the villains--patsies who lack wit and charm but may have a small degree of intelligence, or at least enough brutthem a threat.

IDEAS
The concept of psychohistory is amazing. Most professors of social sciences, whether they admit it or not, have fallen into the delusion that their fields carry the import that Asimov gives psychohistory. Obviously, such a thing is impossible. But . . . what if? The psychohistorian would be a god! Certainly there are those who have tried. Hitler. Lenin. The USA's founding fathers. The flavor of psychohistory, the feeling of one person having a plan and guiding humanity along that plan, has resonance with real history. And with religion. This theme is later taken up in a similar way by Frank Herbert in his Dune series, especially in God Emperor of Dune. In contrast, the ability of an anomaly, the Mule, to thwart the carefully laid plans of the god-like psychohistorian gives Foundation roots in individuality. The tension between free will and destiny is the key theme in these books.

The importance of knowledge and technology to human culture/civilization is treated in Foundation. So also is the idea that knowledge and technology can be as powerful and decisive in human history as actual military might. The great influence of religion on human history is addressed. And the idea of science as a religion is raised. The ultimate power of economics over all other considerations is illustrated. The effects of all these factors on the motivations of individuals and of societies is portrayed effectively. Foundation is social science fiction of the highest degree.

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