3 ms·
Interesting. I read this book and became entirely disenchanted about the series (initially very excited as it was a favorite of my dad's, the TV show came out,
by KerryJones 5y ago
Interesting. I read this book and became entirely disenchanted about the series (initially very excited as it was a favorite of my dad's, the TV show came out, Bill Gate, etc.).
A couple of the issues I had:
- The story is a bit contradictory in that "Psychohistory can't predict the live of 1 person" and then the story repetitively relies on a single person to pull people through Seldon Crises.
- The entire story is a stereo typical "battle of wits" and you can instantly predict who will win/lose by their emotionality (if they are emotional, they will lose, if they are calm, they will win).
- joconde 5y agoFoundation is basically the story of Seldon’s plan, and of the leaders trying to keep it on track while handling the turning points predicted by psychohistory (“Seldon crises”). I think Seldon just assumes or hopes that his advice and the leaders’ judgment will be enough to not derail the plan. It’s like Asimov’s entire timeline, a series of visionaries steering the world in the direction they want. Except there’s an additional challenge, in that they have to act without derailing Seldon’s goals. I think the books do a great job of showing that conflict. Edit: agreed about the battle of wits aspect, but that’s also just Asimov being himself.