Visiting from the Hoag Galaxy
I can get why Golan chose Gaia at the end, even though Gaia is really alien. 1) Gaia is ultimately extremely benevolent. The core intelligence behind it, if there is one, appears to truly desire happiness and safety for humanity. 2) There are possible major threats from outside the Milky Way and at least one major threat from within (Solaria) that would be very hard to deal with in a "normal" manner. 3) Psychohistory is worthless if something or someone can have a major impact on the galaxy on their own. Solaria alone could destroy the Plan forever and anything from outside would be even worse. 4) Gaia does not erase the individual. Bliss is still her own person, distinct from Dom, even though they're both connected by Gaia. Finally, 5) Gaia's method of spreading appears to be slow and benign. Like, a couple generations down the line, the people of Seychelles will start feeling the edge of Gaia's mind and it will spread from there. Gaia can even add and remove people from the collective at will. It might not be good for them, but it's clearly not a problem.
Also, for Gaia to work as a defense, it doesn't need to cover all of humanity, just enough that Gaia is present everywhere humans happen to be. Someone refuses to join Gaia? Sure, that's not a threat to Gaia as a whole. And Gaia was even perfectly happy to wither away and die if Golan chose the Second Foundation to guide humanity's future.
Oh, and one last thing. The formation of Galaxia would ensure that something like the Interregnum would, or even could, never happen again. Ever.
edited 18th Aug '14 9:14:02 PM by Zendervai
Not Three Laws compliant.
Reymmã
My own problem was with what they said about the Second Foundation, that their united empire would be in "permanent living death from calculation". The novel shows how hidebound they've become, but the biggest problem I see is that the galaxy would be dependent on this small self-preserving group of psychics. It's difficult to imagine what the living, enforced Seldon Plan would do wrong (suppress all major conflict?) that Gaia wouldn't do too.
I've always thought of the later novels as being a distinct branch next to the originals. Something Asimov was pressured into doing. I still like them though, and two out of three of the new trilogy by others.
A blog that gets updated on a geological timescale.
Slay foes with bow and arrow
I probably would have sided with the First Foundation,
NaNo 4328 / 50,000
The Second Foundation, however, are an oligarchy that are completely human-centric, who had sabotaged the First Foundation's technology and would do so again to prevent transhumanism.
Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
I just finished foundation's edge and Foundation and earth. Over all I think the books were good, but I hate the idea of Gaia. It seems to be to be not that much better then star trek's borg. The fact that one man has the power to force every one in the universe into hive mind is crazy. Made worse by the fact that the founders of Gaia were chosen because they didn't value individuality so of course it/they felt it was what was best for humanity. What other people's thoughts?