Foundation by Issac Asimov

(Well...its been a while...)

In looking for new sci-fi to read, I found a list of "best sci-fi". After removing all the fantasy that was in the list (ug) and everything I have read, Foundation was one of the few things left that I could get on my Kindle from the library. So, I really came to it through process of elimination.

I read, a number of years ago, Asimov's I, Robot collection, which I enjoyed. I found Foundation to be similarly well written and a universe that is (1) believable and (2) seems internally consistent. Asimov uses a structure that I've seen used most recently in Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312, where the background information is told in the format of an encyclopedia, saving us from pages and pages of exposition by describing quite concisely a particular concept that is going to be further developed with the story itself. Here is was used primarily for giving historical information. Robinson used it more to describe cultural properties of his world. It is a clever method, though it can be overused. Asimov seems to balance it well, bringing it in to give us the longer-term context of a historical act we witnessed in the story itself.

In many ways, it is easy to see that this sci-fi was a product of its time. A particularly obvious one is how nuclear power is seen to be the ultimate solution for all systems. There are no batteries, instead there are tiny nuclear generators. Coal and oil planets are seen as backwards. Only nuclear power is considered civilized. This makes sense given the publishing date of l951. Nuclear power was seen as the future. This was the time of Operation:Plowshare and the promise of nuclear power seemed fantastic, with the idea of clean, unlimited power in popular scientific discussion. There is some of the sense of the destructive aspect of nuclear weapons, but it is certainly the promise of nuclear power is the focus.

I am struck a bit by how the ideas of big data sets are used for future predictions. The central tenet of this pyscohistory appeared to be related to the knowledge of the prediction by those that are within the prediction. In short, the residents of Terminus were not allowed to know the future Seldon was calculating out, for if they did, they would be more likely to not make the choices he was predicting. I am reminded of today's large data sets, like those of Nate Silver, that are being used for, compared to Seldon's timescale short term predictions. I can, though, based on what we are doing today in the "real" world extend the thought to a time where large scale predictions can be made on the behavior of organizations and groups. It seems entirely within our modeling power in the reasonably near future.

Asimov is certainly, much like Bradbury, a short story writer, putting his particular stories into a given universe. I certainly can't fault it, but it is not the same as reading Robison's Mars Trilogy, where there is substantial character development throughout the stories and the world building, or history shaping is told as the characters develop. Here, the characters tend to disappear just once you know enough to start getting interested in them. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this as a way to view another idea of the future.

When I have a chance, I will likely read the next book in the series.

7.5/10