AHA past honorary President Isaac Asimov has been called America's most prolific author, with more than 440 published books. His subject matter covers a wide spectrum ranging from the Bible, to Shakespeare, to science fiction. One of his most widely read chronicles is known as the "Foundation Series." It consists of six books (in story order): Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and Foundation and Earth.

Each of the books can stand on its own merit; however together they chronicle a tale of nearly a thousand years sometime in the distant future. The central character in all the books (although he only actually appears in the first two) is Harry Seldon, a mathematician who has discovered a way to predict the future. It is a new science that he calls "psychohistory."

Seldon lives at a time when the Empire which has ruled millions of planets containing billions of people for more than 10 thousand years is in decline. He discovers that nothing can save the Empire from breaking totally apart. His mathematical formulae also predict 30 thousand years of chaos and war before a new Empire arises to power unless...

Seldon discovers that certain things happen in a very specific order, that the period of chaos can be reduced to a mere 1000 years. With this goal in mind, a contingent of a few hundred people is sent to a previously unpopulated planet at the edge of the galaxy. Ostensibly, their purpose is to catalogue all of the knowledge of the galaxy into a giant reference encyclopedia.

The Seldon Plan, as it becomes known, has a series of built-in crises where a particular decision is critical if order is to be restored within the short 10-century period. The first "Seldon Crisis" occurs when the library workers are confronted by war-like enemies from nearby planets. Seldon has recorded holographic messages for these turning points. He appears and informs the librarians that they really are not librarians at all. Actually, they represent the last of scientifically creative minds left in the galaxy. The reason for the fall of the Empire was ignorance of science and a resultant decline of the infrastructure. Seldon's hologram reminds the scientists that they understand nucleics and can easily defeat the intruders. The Foundation is born!

One of the most interesting twists of the story is that very few people understand the archaic concept of "religion." Death of science caused the collapse of the empire.

There is a "Second" Foundation "at the other end of the galaxy" that continues the development of psychohistory. Its existence is kept secret from the (first) Foundation for fear that the egos of the Foundation leaders would be jealous of any rivals. These people develop a form of mind control where they can mentally control people and bend anyone to their will. Several different encounters between the two Foundations take place.

Throughout the work there is mention of the fact that humans throughout the galaxy are all the same species. It seems impossible that a single species could evolve on so many planets. Does this mean there was in pre-history a single planet where humans arose as a species? Are the stories of Earth or Gaia accurate or only fantasy?

Here is a couple of thousand pages from one of the most famous humanists of the 20th century. This series of books is well worth reading.

--Wayne Wilson