New Video Script! Asimov Foundation!

Today we will be discussing what is without a doubt the most influential science fiction book Saga of all time, Asimov’s Foundation, and of course the associated works. Nowadays science fiction is known for its giant space empires with interconnecting politics, battles among the stars, and decades and even centuries-long plots with many different characters. Even robotic lifeforms have become a staple of science fiction. But these things were not always standard in the genre. Isaac Asimov, born January 2 1920, is essentially credited with inventing the Galactic Empire. Asimov also coined the term “Robotics” and the term “Positronic'' both of which were used in one of the greatest Science Fiction shows of all time, 1987’s Star Trek The Next Generation, for the android character, Data, whose positronic mind was a focal point of many episodes. These words, like many of the terms and concepts used in Asimov's books and short stories, have become commonplace in science fiction. This becomes clearer when we take a look at what science fiction was before 1940.

We will start with what is often sighted as the first science fiction book of all time. Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Frankenstein which was also called The Modern Prometheus was published in 1818. Apparently Mary Shelly decided to write the book after imagining a story about a scientist playing God who creates life in a laboratory but ultimately rejects his creation. In Frankenstein, Scientist Victor Frankenstein using vague Alchemy, and Chemistry discovers a metal for transmuting nonliving matter into living tissue. Though he had intended to create something beautiful, when the creature is animated Victor finds it hideous to behold, he abandons the creature living a fully intelligent aware being to experience the harsh world for the first time on its own. In The Detached Retina: Aspects of SF and Fantasy, science fiction writer, Brian Aldiss who popularized the notion of Frankenstein as the first true science fiction novel states,

[My argument was and remains that the beginnings of real science fiction can plausibly be identified in that novel. Here is no idle wonder; here is a man taking control of what was previously in the provenance of nature alone. Two decades on, and my once heterodox view has won wide favor.]

Mary Shelly with Frankenstein was proposing a question that countless science fiction authors have proposed since, What if Science Goes too far? What are the consequences of human arrogance? In 1898 another Landmark in science fiction would be published, HG Well’s War of the Worlds. This book is widely considered to be a masterpiece of science fiction. The plot of War of the Worlds arose from Wells’ anxieties about his times. He was worried about the disastrous effect that British imperialism would have on the Aboriginal Tasmanians of what is now called Australia. The British presence in Australia began in 1788, over the course of the next 10 years the indigenous population declined to just 10 percent of what it once was. This was due to disease brought over by settlers, the theft of their homelands, and of course direct violence. The Martian invasion of earth was essentially a metaphor for British colonialism. HG Wells writes in a preface to one of his collected works, The Scientific Romances of H.G. Wells.

[“These stories of mine collected here do not pretend to deal with possible things; they are exercises of the imagination in a quite different field. They belong to a class of writing which includes the Golden Ass of Apuleius, the True Histories of Lucian, Peter Schlemihl, and the story of Frankenstein. It includes too some admirable inventions by Mr. David Garnett, Lady into Fox for instance. They are all fantasies; they do not aim to project a serious possibility; they aim indeed only at the same amount of conviction as one gets in a good gripping dream.”]

Well’s writes here that he considers his stories as well as Frankenstein by Mary Shelly as “Fantasies” as they do not present practical interest, but instead deal with more abstract and vaguely scientific concepts. Well’s also distinguished himself from the likes of French Author Jules Verne born in 1828 who is now recognized as the second most translated author of all time. Jules Verne was the author of Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea among many other works. Wells stated that Verne’s work dealt almost exclusively with actual possibilities of discovery and invention. He referred to the work of Verne as an “anticipatory invention”, stating that within his work Verne had made some remarkable forecast, acknowledging that many of Verne’s inventions had come true.

Stories about space travel would become more popular starting around the 1920s. Edward E. Smith The Skylark of Space is considered to be one of the first examples of a space opera and features one of the earliest depictions of interstellar travel. There were also several other stories published about space travel around those times such as David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Under the Moons of Mars. But none of them had the complexity of the Galactic Empire which Isaac Asimov began presenting to us in 1942. In the Book Foundation’s Edge, the penultimate book in the series 22,000 years have passed since the start. of interstellar travel. There are 7 books in the foundation series, 4 books in the Galactic Empire Series, and a total of 37 short stories and books in his Robots series. All of them interconnect as part of the same ultra big Millennia spanning fictional science fiction universe, making Asimov’s works the premier example of an epic sci-fi space saga. Everything of this type since then has been borrowed from his work.

The interstellar political intrigue presented in Asimov's work has been imitated in just about every work involving galactic civilization. In fact, it can be argued that Asimov invented an entire genre of science fiction. The Dune Saga, Star Wars, The Culture Series,  The Hyperion Cantos, and endless others all follow in the footsteps of Isaac Asimov. Asimov’s galactic Empire, like just about every other created, borrows many elements from the real-life ancient empire of Rome. Asimov intentionally modeled his empire on Rome because he wanted to depict the fall of a great society but on a galactic scale containing 25 million worlds, Frank Herbert directly lifted this idea for his Dune Saga. Edward Gibbons's book  “The History of The Decline and Fall of Rome”, which was published in 6 volumes was a huge influence on Asimov and Herbert. The work covered the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, from 180 to 1453, concluding in 1590 AD. It depicts the behaviors and decisions that lead to the decline and the eventual fall of The Roman Empire. The political structure of Asimov’s Empire was essentially lifted directly from Rome. As I have mentioned in other videos Asimov wanted to show the inherent issues with giant centralized governments, and bureaucracies, such systems always collapse upon their own weight

[“The fall of Empire, gentlemen, is a massive thing, however, and not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a freezing of caste, a damming of curiosity—a hundred other factors. It has been going on, as I have said, for centuries, and it is too majestic and massive a movement to stop.”]

― Isaac Asimov, Foundation

The fact that Asimov depicted the volatility of galactic society is also likely why it is commonplace to see galactic society in various stages of decline in most science fiction. There is almost never true stability. This is true pretty much across the board with some exceptions. The greatness of Asimov’s work cannot be denied and his far-reaching influence on the genre of science fiction cannot be understated.