Foundation
A mathematician predicts the fall of civilisation. He cannot stop it. He can only prepare for what comes after.
The Science of History
Isaac Asimov's 1951 novel collects five stories that span centuries following the collapse of a Galactic Empire predicted by mathematician Hari Seldon through his science of psychohistory. A small group of scholars, the Foundation, is established on the edge of the galaxy to preserve human knowledge and shorten the coming dark age from thirty thousand years to a single millennium. Each generation faces a new crisis that Seldon has, impossibly, already anticipated.
Reading Foundation
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"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
"Isaac Asimov · Foundation
Asimov based the Foundation's structure loosely on Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. He began writing the stories at the age of 21 and published them in Astounding Science Fiction magazine.
Foundation is widely considered one of the most influential works in science fiction history. Apple TV launched a major adaptation in 2021. Elon Musk has cited the series as a primary inspiration for his ambitions in space.