The first episode of Foundation (2021), and based on "The Psychohistorians", the first story in Isaac Asimov's Foundation.
A brief prologue introduces us to the harsh, foreboding Ice World of Terminus, at the very edge of the galaxy, where a group of children from a struggling colony dare each other to walk as far as they can to a mysterious floating artifact in the distance, which repels anyone who gets close to it. One of them gets overconfident, walks out too far, and collapses, but is rescued by Salvor Hardin, the colony warden, who is reportedly the person who has gotten the closest to the artifact. Hardin tells the child that the object repels all life, and that it is is best ignored.
Thirty-five years earlier, on the flooded world of Synnax, Gaal Dornick bids farewell to her family as she leaves behind her world and the fanatical, fundamentalist, and isolationist people there. Having won a math competition and solved an infamously unsolvable conundrum, Gaal has won the opportunity to work and study with the legendary mathematician Hari Seldon on Trantor, the capital of the galaxy-spanning Empire. And despite her people's fanatical rejection of science, she hopes that in doing so she will find a solution to the flooding that is swamping their entire society. Having never left her homeworld before, everything is new and exciting to her; despite a bizarre incident during the hyperspace jump when she wakes from the stasis everyone is placed under to prevent psychological instability, Gaal reaches Trantor, has an exciting ride down a mighty space elevator called the Starbridge, witnesses the arrival of diplomatic parties from Thespis and Anacreon, a pair of feuding worlds on the outer rim of the Imperium, and finally finds herself introduced to Seldon, her hero.
So it is naturally something of a shock to her when he explains to her that he — and she — will almost certainly be arrested by the following morning.
For there is a reason that Seldon is legendary; he is the architect of a radical and complex new school of mathematics called "Psychohistory", which purports to be able to predict the behaviours and actions of huge groups of people — societies, even — with pinpoint accuracy. And unfortunately, Seldon's equations have led him to the inescapable conclusion that the Empire is within the grip of an irreversible decline that will, within mere centuries, bring about a new dark age of endless galactic war, devastation and ruin that will last for thirty millennia. Naturally, the rulers of the Empire — the triumvirate clones of Emperor Cleon I, Brother Day (Cleon XII), Brother Dusk (Cleon XI) and Brother Dawn (Cleon XIII) — are not thrilled by the fact that Seldon keeps telling people about this, and intend to have him arrested, tried and convicted of inciting treason and sowing discord. And, as Gaal is the only person to have ever solved the conundrum that got her employed, they are hoping that she will either be able to disprove his theories or will be easily intimidated into publicly discrediting him.
Seldon's predictions come to pass, and both he and Gaal are arrested. During his Kangaroo Court, Seldon is unapologetic, insisting that he is no radical but is merely outlining what is essentially a mathematical truth; however, he also insists that if his theories are listened to, then the coming dark ages can be reduced from 30,000 years to a single millennia through the establishing of a "foundation" to preserve knowledge and the story of humanity. When Gaal, sure enough, is given Seldon's equations in the form of a "Prime Radiant" and ordered to discredit them, she realises that he is telling the truth... and bravely supports his theories in public, condemning herself.
After being found guilty, Seldon and Gaal are being escorted away when they witness an attack, seemingly perpetrated by terrorists from both Thespis and Anacreon, which destroys the Starbridge and brings it crashing to the surface of the planet, killing hundreds of millions. The diplomatic missions from both worlds are detained and both Seldon and Gaal are brought before the Brothers, who accuse them of involvement. Seldon denies foreknowledge of the attacks specifically, but insists that they are proof that his work is correct, as they demonstrate that the Empire is overstretched and other forces are finding weak spots. He further points out that the system of clone succession represented by the Brothers is further proof; although they have kept the peace, they bring no new ideas or perspectives that might arrest decline, and are merely the same person repeating the same ideas over and over again, leading to inevitable decay. When Brother Day threatens to have Seldon executed, Gaal claims that she has seen in his equations that doing so will result in Day's death within a year, and that Seldon's survival is essential to arresting the decline of the Empire.
The Emperor's judgement comes down; while it is felt that executing Seldon and Gaal would be unwise, they are instead to be permitted to develop their foundation... on an inhospitable world at the fringes of the empire called Terminus. If they are wrong, they are easily forgotten and ignored, and if they are right, the ruling faction may nevertheless be able to claim the credit for their efforts. However, Seldon admits that this is what he expected, and indeed hoped for; the Foundation will be able to do its work far from prying and interfering eyes. He offers Gaal the chance to join him and in doing so not only save her world but the entire galaxy.
In an epilogue set back on Terminus thirty-five years later, Salvor Hardin walks right up to the artifact, the forcefield having no effect whatsoever.
This episode provides examples of:
- City Planet: Trantor. There are at least 100 "subterranean levels" of the outer shell, and billions of people can spend their entire lives without seeing the sun or stars outside of computer projections of them.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- The destruction of the Starbridge. A terrorist attack involving several perpetrators from a rather Middle Eastern-coded planet brings down a massive civilian tower causing massive loss of life in a way which is said to "change everything". It's basically September 11 multiplied by several thousand.
- The way the rulers of the Imperium react to psychohistory's predictions is compared to how the rulers of Gaal's world reacted to evidence of progressive flooding in a way which is clearly used to stand in for climate change.
- The Empire's system of "clone succession", in which the Empire is constantly governed by three clones of Emperor Cleon (as a boy, a man in his prime and an elderly man), can also be read as a pretty clear metaphor for the ongoing argument / accusation that the United States and other nations are increasingly being dominated by a gerontocracy. Essentially, the idea is that aging members of the "Boomer" generation continue to maintain a dominant stranglehold on political, economic and cultural life and refuse to make way for younger generationsnote , with the result that new and emergent problems are failing to be addressed because the leadership is from a generation that either doesn't understand them or, more cynically, won't be affected by them.
- Foreshadowing: Gaal's departure from Synnax is played as if she were essentially being exiled, which foreshadows what happens to her, Seldon and the Foundation by the end.
- The Fundamentalist: Synnax is a world in the grip of a water-worshipping religion which rejects science, mathematics and knowledge, to the point where simply entering a mathematics competition apparently marked Gaal for death.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Gaal accuses Seldon of manipulating her to come to Trantor just to support his numbers, Seldon points out that she, like him, was a political threat on her world facing the risk of arrest and likely execution for her pursuit of truth through mathematics: "You know math is never 'just' numbers. In the wrong hands it's a weapon; in the right hands, deliverance."
