Foundation universe
Asimov's unified future history of humanity across 20,000 years.
The Foundation universe is a fictional future history spanning nearly 25,000 years, created by American author Isaac Asimov through the gradual fusion of his Robot, Galactic Empire, and Foundation book series. It describes humanity's colonization of the galaxy and is notable for its integration of multiple series into a single, cohesive timeline.
Quick Facts
- Author
- Isaac Asimov
- Total novels
- 18
- Total word count
- about 1,500,000 words
- Time span
- around 20,000 years
- Number of inhabited planets
- nearly twenty-five million
- Special hugo award year
- 1966
Facts from the source article.
Works set in the universe
The Foundation series shares its setting with Asimov's first published novel, Pebble in the Sky, though Foundation takes place about 10,000 years later. Pebble in the Sky became the basis for the Galactic Empire series. At some unknown date before writing Foundation's Edge, Asimov decided to merge the Foundation and Galactic Empire series with his Robot series, so all three are set in the same universe, giving a combined length of 18 novels and about 1,500,000 words, spanning around 20,000 years. The Stars, Like Dust states that Earth is radioactive due to nuclear war; Asimov later explained that this perception was formulated by Earthmen many centuries after the event and had become distorted. This work is regarded by Asimov as part of the Empire series but does not directly mention Trantor or the Spacer worlds; one character has a Visi-Sonor, the same instrument played by Magnifico in Foundation and Empire. Asimov integrated the Robot series into the Foundation series, making the robot R. Daneel Olivaw appear again twenty thousand years later in sequels and prequels to the original Foundation trilogy. In Robots and Empire, Asimov describes how the worlds that later formed the Empire were settled and how Earth became radioactive. The novels The End of Eternity, Nemesis, and The Positronic Man are related to the greater Foundation series, though Asimov did not mention The End of Eternity in the series listing from Prelude to Foundation, and he stated that Nemesis is not part of the Foundation or Empire series but might someday be tied to them.
Technology
Mathematician and psychologist Hari Seldon developed psychohistory, which uses sophisticated mathematics and statistical analysis to predict future trends on a galactic scale. He predicted the unavoidable fall of the Galactic Empire and established the Foundation as a repository of crucial knowledge to enable society to revive itself more quickly. The Seldon Plan is his great mathematical work describing the pattern of events set in motion by his intervention and that of his successors. The Time Vault, created and programmed by Seldon, opens on each anniversary of the Foundation and, at crucial moments called Seldon Crises, plays a holographic message from Seldon confirming the plan's course. The Prime Radiant stores psychohistorical equations showing the future development of humanity; it projects them onto walls without casting shadows, and as a tool of the Second Foundation, control operates through the power of the mind, allowing the user to zoom in and change the equations. A Visi-Sonor is a multi-keyed musical instrument that produces holographic visual effects and music; the Mule uses it to brainwash others in Foundation and Empire. In Prelude to Foundation, Eto Demerzel, the First Minister to Emperor Cleon I, is revealed to be the ancient sentient robot R. Daneel Olivaw. The Mind static device, introduced in Second Foundation, is a tool developed by a group within the Foundation for use against members of the Second Foundation, using their mentalic powers against them.
Planetary systems, stars and planets
Asimov notes that there are nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets in the Galaxy. 61 Cygni is a star system advanced by Lord Dorwin as a potential site for the origin of the human species, along with Sol and three other systems in the Sirius Sector and Arcturus in the Arcturus Sector. Achilles is a gas giant planet in the Anacreon system, between Saturn and Neptune in size, with a strong equatorial bulge and several moons. Alpha orbits Alpha Centauri A, 4.2 light-years from Sol; the Empire terraformed it for Earth's inhabitants after Earth was devastated by radiation, but the project was never completed. It is almost entirely water except for a fifteen-thousand-square-kilometer island; Lord Dorwin considered it the original system of humanity. The inhabitants call it New Earth and live simply, with men engaging in long sea voyages to fish. Golan Trevize ventured there in his search for Earth, but the inhabitants tried to infect him and his crew with a disease. Anacreon is a planet near the outer end of the periphery, once capital of Anacreon subprefecture and later the Anacreon Kingdom; it is a binary star system with an orbital period of 181 years, 84 days and 14 hours. Arcturus is a major planet and capital of the Sirius Sector in the Galactic Empire, apparently named for the star Arcturus in Boötes.
Selected awards
In 1966, the Foundation trilogy won a special Hugo Award for Best All-Time Series, surprising its author Isaac Asimov, who believed the prize was meant for The Lord of the Rings. The runners-up included works by Burroughs, Heinlein, Smith, and Tolkien. The series later earned five additional Hugo Awards, one Nebula, and three Locus Awards. The trilogy ranked third in a 2012 Locus poll of best 20th-century science fiction novels, behind Dune and Ender's Game. Its acclaim has endured, with its most recent award coming in 2023.
More in Novels About Artificial Intelligence
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced