History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 35 Appreciation of Ancient Science Fiction "Foundation Series"

The "Foundation" series is one of the greatest works of science fiction, and it is also known as the cornerstone of contemporary science fiction.In the author's favorite "Hyperian" series and "Three-Body" series, there are clear tributes to the "Foundation" series and the author Asimov.

For the plot part of the "Foundation" series, spoilers and comments are of little significance. I personally think that interested readers should really experience Mr. Asimov in the original text as early as the first atomic bomb (1945) just before and after the explosion , will give us the picture of human beings and the Milky Way in the next 1 years.Here, the author just wants to use my own language and understanding to make some structural and setting interpretations of the fifteen original works of the "Foundation" series.

Let’s hang up the book bag here first, and make it clear that the author thinks the order of reading the base series is actually roughly the order of the plot time: "I, Robot"-"Steel Cave"-"The Naked Sun"-"Robot in the Dawn"- "Robots and Empires" - "Starry Stars" - "Under the Stars" - "A Drop in the Sky" - "Prelude to the Foundation" - "Towards the Base" - "Foundations" - "Foundations and Empires" - "Second Foundation" - "Edge of Foundation" - "Foundation and Earth"

Part [-] (I, Robot - A Drop in the Ocean)
From the beginning of the "Foundation" series in terms of time, the author thinks it should be Dr. Susan and the robot company in the early 21st century (although "The End of Eternity" also mentioned the future vision of humans ruling the Galactic Empire, I don't think it should be the The timeline of the series was advanced to the 50s).During this pre-Earth phase, primitive robots were created and the Three Theorems were formulated.In almost a few hundred years, the leap technology for navigation on the interstellar scale was developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence, Aurora was discovered, the earth regime was restructured, and robots began to secretly intervene and dominate the operation of the earth administration .

Afterwards, starting from "Cave of Steel", the space clan headed by Aurora, who were successfully developed and surpassed the earth in technology and economy, began a tug-of-war with the earth for hundreds of years.This tug-of-war, if only from the perspective of the plot, seems to result in something similar to what Jiscart Raventloff, who first obtained the ability to adjust human emotions, envisioned: the 50 worlds controlled by the space clans are gradually dying out, and With the second wave of exploration, the people on Earth gradually spread to the entire galaxy.

The reason for the formation of this kind of competition and political situation seems to be the result of being retaliated by the earth because of the activation of the nuclear reaction multiplier by Amadero and his gang, which caused the earth's radiation to gradually increase.At the same time, due to the deterioration of the earth's environment, the overall human beings have been "decentralized", especially the result of removing cultural centralization, so that human beings have fewer fetters in the process of developing the universe.

The time span of this part is particularly large, roughly from the 30th century AD (Elia Bale's era) to the eve of the Trantor Empire becoming powerful and evolving into the Galactic Empire.Several dark threads buried in the history of the Galactic Empire during this period of thousands of years have been closed in the final chapter of the Foundation series.

What the author can see are roughly the following: the ending of the earth people and the earth; the ending of the Solaris (this directly leads to a darker and more open ending, and the author's understanding of this is at the end of the article); mule's musical instrument ——The emergence of the sound and light piano; the realization of neural synapses and spiritual adjustment (although this part does not say where the machine and the farmer are going, but the author believes that Daniel should be involved in the development of this matter and use this as an opportunity to build Gaia ).

Part Two (Prelude to Base - Towards Base)

In terms of chronological order, the second part should start with the young Seldon coming to Trantor as a rookie to participate in the ten-year meeting.In the ten-year conference, he published psychohistory, met Daniel (Dan Mozier) and others, and after a series of adventure stories that now seem clichéd, he married a robot wife, became the prime minister of the empire, and reached the pinnacle of life (and no).Later in the story, Hari Seldon develops the rudiments of applied psychohistory, organizes the original Second Foundation, loses a loved one, is ostracized by the government at the end of the Empire, and finally chooses Trantor for the First Foundation.

The author personally feels that it would be great if the part of the story called "Foundation Prequel" can be published before the main story.The author also hopes that readers in the future can also read the "Foundation" series strictly in accordance with the chronological order of the stories, rather than reading them in the order of publication, because in this way, when reading "Prequel", you will not feel that every sentence and every chapter is different. It is to make up for the previous publications, although the author personally thinks that the "prequel" is more exciting and delicate than the main story.

Although it is objectively true that the role of "Prequel" is mainly to add a lot of patches to the main story, but the author still thinks there are many interesting details in it: the struggle between Aurora and the earth in the mouth of Sister Ruida in Dal District , and what are the details of Daniel's later deeds?
Are the people who live on Myqusheng directly descendants of Aurora, or are they just holding on to Aurora’s ideals to achieve certain political demands? If they are descendants of Aurora, then Aurora will lose everything later , What is the process and details of these people coming to Trantor?
Judging from Daniel's (Demozel/Hummin) self-report, he has many robot companions throughout the inhabited galaxy.We know that after the Earth and Aurora are abandoned, Solari is the only one in the galaxy who can manufacture high-quality robots, but we also know that Daniel will definitely not know about Solari's situation at this time.

According to the previous analysis, we have reason to suspect that the other robots including Dors are the same ones that Amadillo left on Aurora and the earth at that time?We know that these robots will not be fully controlled and obey Daniel's orders. Is there a long-term struggle between the two groups of robots, the "Giscartes" and the "Daniels" mentioned in an authorized biography of the "Base Series"? ?
Part Three (Base - Base and Earth)
This part is naturally the beginning of the base series in the traditional sense, from the self-exile of Seldon and many scientists to Trantor, to several Seldon crises, and then to the mule chaos.In the end, Trevize's line was used to draw out the final struggle between the two bases, and the main line was led to Gaia, to Solari, to Alpha, the direct descendant of Earth, to Earth, to the moon, and finally to see the machine again. Daniel Oliva.

This part of the novel, the author Asimov pointed out very clearly, borrowed the structure and many events and plots of "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire", so until the last part of Trevize, the whole has a fairly strong epic sense and heaviness.However, for this part, the author still chooses not to describe too much about the plot, but to describe some of the author's thoughts on the whole after reading it.

Regarding the settings of psychohistory, robots, emotional adjustment, etc. that run through the entire book, and finally seem to lead to unknowable forces, the author has this understanding:
The first layer: the first base and the entire galaxy are basically passively affected, except for some special people, but these special people (such as Trevize, the little girl’s father, and the last female politician), the "Awakening" may be a higher level, such as Gaia or Daniel or Solari or the pit dug for the second base by an unknown civilization

What the author understands: Asimov hinted at the fear in Feilong's eyes and Trevize's fear at the end, the overall direction of human development in the galaxy has been unknown, and the unknown civilization with spiritual power is controlled, because the two waves of human beings who may have the power to resist are alienated And were knocked down, have no strength to resist this kind of control.

Second Tier: The second base affects humans in important positions including but not limited to the first base.

The third layer: Gaia is affecting people in the two bases.From this point of view, if the mule is indeed a member of Gaia, it is worth pondering whether the mule is a part of Gaia's overall plan or whether it is really an accident.Because, the second base will be exposed and known by the first base only through mule chaos; then there is the long-term struggle of the first base against the second base, and some countermeasures of the second base against the first base; It is through certain guidance and the spontaneous comprehension of the leaders of the second base that they discovered that there is a greater force controlling mankind and the universe, and then they coincidentally launched an expedition with the first base whose final destination was Gaia; Yashang completed the psychological adjustment of the leaders of the two bases.

The fourth layer: Daniel influences Trevize, but also makes Daniel feel that this is his own wish, and Trevize must also feel that it is his own wish.At the same time, or around the beginning of the Seldon Project, Daniel began to organize and influence Gaia.Of course, during this period Daniel was also influencing people in the two bases.

The fifth layer: Solari is also influencing Daniel on the moon, and may even be influencing Giscart back then.The author is not sure whether Guiscart's basic theory of psychohistory is his own spontaneous creation, or whether it comes from this layer or the next layer of influence.

Sixth layer: Unknowable forces are affecting Solari, especially Feron and Daniel, or have also begun to affect Giscart very early on.

The future of mankind will be combined with Daniel's more than 1 years of experience, his own strong spiritual power, plus Feilong's body that is not restricted by the three laws, plus Feilong's own spiritual power, plus Solari's own longevity , coupled with the bisexuality of Feilong itself, which is detached from the population, to control and develop.

All of the above expressions refer to the two most important robots in this book - Machine Daniel Oliva and Machine Giscart Raventloff, and the author uses "he" as a reference.Because the author personally thinks that these two robots are in Asimov's heart, and what he wants readers to see in the overall novel, is that they show their dedication and kindness to the development of human society as a whole beyond ordinary humans.

Here are some private goods: Many people think that the base series is outdated, or has not been able to catch up with many excellent works in the past 20 years. The author personally disagrees.If we criticize too much about the outdated progress of science and technology in science fiction, the author thinks that more than half of the gist of science fiction will be lost, because I believe that science fiction is more about providing readers with a vision of the future of science and technology. A science fiction author's overall picture of the future.The author personally thinks that such a picture may be more important than the progress of science and technology itself, because human beings are social and political after all, and in the foreseeable future, the development of science and technology is estimated to have a high probability of becoming a means of serving human beings themselves, rather than Become a single means of purely dominating human beings.

As the recognized cornerstone of the western science fiction world, the author feels that the role of this "cornerstone" is not the specific setting of "three theorems of robotics" or "psychohistory" that most people think, but Asimov's combination of previous The history of mankind (the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire), the development of science and technology he understood, and the various possibilities of human beings in the future picture have woven the great picture of "Foundation".Maybe because I don’t read many books, I don’t know if any science fiction writers before Asimov also set the framework in this way, but as far as the author can see at present, this method is indeed a pioneer of Asimov.

(End of this chapter)