>
>I have an essay explaining many aspects of the Foundation universe. I thought I had posted it at http://www.davidbrin.com/
>but now I can't find it. (Ay of you know where it is?)
>
>If one of you would choose to host it, I'll email it over and then you can let the Asimov list folks comment to their hearts content.
If there are not other volunteers, I can put it somewhere in my homepage.
Alejandro
I'll experiment with sending the whole thing below. FY!.
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The Robots and Foundation Universe: Issues and Hints Left For Us by Isaac Asimov
by David Brin
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous." A.N.Whitehead
Ah, robots.
Ever since Karel Capek coined the word "robot" in his stage play "R.U.R.", its meaning has gone through steady transformation. The fleshy slave-workers of Capek's drama would today be called "androids" or be likened to the replicants of the movie BLADERUNNER. Robots became associated with metal and plastic... computer chips and cool, artificial intelligence without direct connection to protoplasm.
Like aliens, robots have served at foils for the two great drivers of sci fi plotting -- the Other Who Must Be Feared... and the Innocent Other Who Must Be Protected From Vile Humanity... especially our wretched and oppressive institutions. We all remember many examples of both kinds. From the viciously genocidal machines of TERMINATOR and THE MATRIX to the cute little robots who are pursued by nasty generals, in SHORT CIRCUIT and D.A.R.Y.L.
Some science fiction tales did try to move beyond these awful cliches. I am reminded of Robert Heinlein's THE DOOR INTO SUMMER, whose hero is a tinkerer-inventor who wants to build household robots that are actually useful in the home, without necessarily writing sonnets or planning extinction for all humankind. Indeed, this gradual introduction of utilitarian models better predicted events than any of the clanking humanoids that spun off the pages and screens of bad sci fi over the decades.
No special issue dedicated to robots would be complete without turning our attention to the biggest and most impressive science fictional universe in which robots hold a major presence -- the "Robots and Foundation" universe that was created, over the course of a lifetime, by one of SF's Grand Masters... the good doctor Isaac Asimov.
I've been asked to comment for this magazine... in part because I had the honor of being chosen to "clean up".... to tie the loose ends that Isaac left dangling when he so unfortunately left us, some years ago. Along with my collaborators and pals, Gregory Benford and Greg Bear, I helped create the new SECOND FOUNDATION TRILOGY, with the blessing of Isaac's heirs, his wife Janet and daughter Robin. As author of the final book in that loose trilogy (the books all involve the same character, but can be read separately), I tried to bring together all of Isaac's themes in a final grand adventure, titled FOUNDATION'S TRIUMPH.
And now, by request, I'll let you in on some of the background story...
#
Isaac Asimov first began pondering human destiny, while working in his father's candy store, at a time when the world was in turmoil. Vast, inscrutable forces appeared to be working on humanity, making whole populations behave in unfathomably dangerous ways - often against their own self interest. Countless millions believed that the answer lay in prescriptions - in formulas for human existence - called ideologies.
Young Isaac was too smart to fall for any of the ideologies then on sale. From Marxism to fascism to ultra capitalism, they all preached that human beings were simple creatures, easily described and predictable according to incantations scribbled on a few printed pages. As a scientist and a trained observer, he could tell that these scenarios were wishful-thinking, having more in common with religion than real science. And yet, Isaac could easily understand why people yearned for a model - a paradigm - for human behavior. Surrounded by irrationality on all sides, Isaac dreamed that maybe, someday, someone might discover how to deal with the quirky complexity of people... if not individuals, then perhaps the great mass of humanity.
He had no idea how to solve such a problem, and was too sensible to expect formulae from the fools preaching and ranting contradictory slogans on mid-Twentieth Century radios. But what about the far future? How about when human beings filled the galaxy? Might so many individual foibles cancel out, letting mathematics describe human momentum, the way dynamic formulas of chemistry's Gas laws simplify the behavior of vast numbers of molecules?
Take this notion and combine it with young Isaac's reading matter; one summer he devoured Gibbon's DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. Combine, and now stir in a little yearning for adventure and you can start to see a pattern developing. One that would eventually turn into one of the great classics of mid-20th Century science fiction.
#
It all starts with Hari Seldon, a character that most critics closely identify with Asimov, the writer-scientist himself. Seldon only appears as an active character at the very beginning of the FOUNDATION TRILOGY. But his shadow stretches onward, across all of the many short stories and novels that span five hundred years of history and many thousands of starry parsecs.
Only in later novels will we learn of meddling by another trademarked Asimov character, the mighty immortal robot, Daneel Olivaw. At first, here in Asimov's first great work - the Trilogy - the tale appears to be limited to human beings. Ten quadrillion human beings... and an idea. One of the biggest ideas.
The idea that we - or maybe just a few of us - might look ahead, spot the inevitable mistakes and jagged reef, and somehow chart a course around the most dangerous shoals, leading eventually to a better shore.
That is quite a concept to explore! But Isaac Asimov's fertile mind did not stop there. Another matter roiling in his brain was the problem of _Robots. Far too long maligned as Frankenstein monsters, in magazines with lurid covers, they seemed to him filled with far greater possibilities. Yes, the simpleminded approach was to make them objects of dread. But what if we could program them to stay loyal? To grow with us? And maybe to grow better than us... while remaining loyal to the last?
The result - Asimov's universe of Robot Stories - became another instant classic of science fiction.
The Foundation Universe and the Robots - for many years, these two cycles of fiction stayed separate.Then Asimov did something controversial. He _combined _them. It seemed a strange decision at the time. But in the long run, that combination brought about a great conversation. A conversation between Asimov and his readers. And one that Isaac kept thrashing back and forth... with himself.
#
Indeed, Isaac kept re-adjusting his focus in his universe. Like a truly honest scientist, he re-evaluated. Each and every decade, Isaac found hidden implications in his universe. Things that were already tacit, between the lines. In his incredibly meticulous honesty, he always bared these implications and explored them... til the next decade started another round.
- First he wrought the Foundation, treating a quadrillion humans as 'gas molecules' whose destiny could be calculated through Hari Seldon's wondrous new science of psychohistory.
- Later, Isaac he realized that perturbations would interfere with statistical predictability, even in such a marvelous new science. So he introduced a secret cabal of psychic-mathematicians (the Second Foundation) who would be dedicated to guiding the Seldon Plan back in line, should the galaxy drift too far down a wrong path.
- But a decade or so afterwards, Isaac realized the moral flaw of the Second Foundation... that it left humanity led forever by a secret, inherited aristocracy! This was offensive to Isaac's democratic sensibilities. He solved this by bringing both halves of his life-work together... by inserting robots into the Foundation Universe. Daneel Olivaw and his scrupulously honest followers would act behind the scenes, manipulating even the Second Foundation, all for our own best interests, of course. Picture dedicated court eunuchs, who cannot conspire to become lords, because they will have no offspring. They can be trusted... or can they?
- A little while later, Isaac realized something... free will had been reversed! The mechanical servants had memory and volition, they were rare, precious and powerful, while humans - as numerous and powerless as insects - had amnesia about their past and no control over their future. Now THAT didn't sound like such a great future either!
He sought a way out of this... and came up with Gaia! This is the ultimate robotic plan for humanity, for us to transcend together into a single, all-powerful mental being. (a concept we've seen positively portrayed by Arthur C. Clarke in CHILDHOOD'S END and 2001... and negatively in Star Trek's infamous Borg.) The Gaia/Galaxia resolution that Isaac put forward in FOUNDATION'S EDGE would eventually deify humanity, restoring our memory and authority over robots again, in a fashion that Daneel Olivaw would find acceptable, allowing him at last to put down his ancient burden and step aside for a long deserved rest.
Only then Isaac took things to the next level, and realized....
#
Well, he dropped plenty of hints, before he died. Isaac made it pretty clear... at least to Benford and Bear and me... where the next dilemma lay.
In continuing Isaac Asimov's epochal saga, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear and I faced a daunting challenge - to keep adding ideas and possibilities to the Foundation/Robots setting. Concepts that captivate the reader. Visions that are new, awesome and wonderful, illuminated in stories filled with interesting characters and vivid adventure. And yet, we had to remain true to Isaac's overall vision of a startling and intellectually stimulation future.
This was a big role to attempt to fill! As I said earlier, Asimov added an entire course to our endless and ongoing dinner-table conversation about destiny. His shoes were hard to fill. Fortunately, Isaac did lay down a terrific supply of hints, especially in books that he completed before he died. Clues to mysteries and logical quandaries that he clearly meant to deal with someday.
But we also had to capture the delightful flavor of an Asimovian tale! Isaac was, above all, a lover of mystery stories, and so a love of logical twists and turns carried over into his science fiction. Furthermore, readers of his works have come to expect certain traditions.
- The protagonist faces adversaries whose masked motives are peeled away through logic and insight, with successive reversals offering delicious surprise.
- Tantalizing mysteries. Isaac left "hanging questions" in many books... using these as hooks for the next tale. New books should continue this tradition of asking more unanswered questions.
- Moral quandaries. Isaac wasn't afraid of presenting readers with morally ambivalent situations. The hero must choose among several paths, each with advantages and drawbacks. Villains have reasons for their actions.
- Issues of cosmic relevance. Isaac dealt with DESTINY.
- Frequent referral to events in other books. While each of his books can be immensely satisfying on his own, Isaac's readers also loved catching brief references to events that took place elsewhere in his universe.
These traditions combined into a classic futuristic universe, a stage where we could watch a play as vivid and timeless as anything by Hugo or Dumas.
And there is Hari Seldon (who is also hero of our new Second Foundation Trilogy), a monumental figure, able to see so much about human destiny, yet also feeling himself trapped by strange forces that he barely understands... until achieving a strange triumph at the very end. His struggles to bring humanity to a sanctuary of happiness are epochal
Alas, Isaac did not have time to continue exploring the implications. Mortality catches up with us all. But the logic is right there - a path implied by several dozen delicious clues he laid down, over the years. Clearly, he was not finished amazing us. These clues told a new generation of writers what to do next.
What matters is to stay enthralled, to remain ready to be provoked by new thoughts, to keep pushing back the curtain a little bit, learning and discussing more about our future. Whether the topic is robots... how to keep them loyal and interesting... or almost any other dramatic device of science fiction... dramatic devices that may become tomorrow's world-wreckers... or household convenience.
The adventure continues. Enjoy! And keep thinking.
With cordial regards.
David Brin www.davidbrin.com
all rights reserved 2001. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
