Foundation and Empire

Hyperspace is a dimension of space-time through which spaceships can travel much faster than the speed of light. Hyperspace takes great skill to navigate and “jump” through successfully; near large gravitational fields, calculations are hard to make. While escaping General Riose’s forces, Lathan Devers comments on the emergency jumps he makes: “It’s lucky we didn’t land up in a sun’s belly” (68). In the book, it is a simple plot device that makes possible travel and communication between planets. Without such a device, the story wouldn’t be possible, as otherwise it would take thousands of years for transports to travel even partway across the Galactic Empire.

A science of social predictions developed by Hari Seldon, psychohistory evaluates mathematically the future trends of societies. Seldon uses its techniques to plan a Foundation, activities of which will help save the galaxy from a 30,000-year collapse into barbarism after the fall of the Galactic Empire. The predictions of psychohistory prove highly accurate: For the first 300 years of the Foundation’s existence, everything unfolds as Seldon has foreseen.

Psychohistory has a weakness, though: It cannot account for the rise of an individual—the Mule—whose psychic powers disrupt the motivations of masses of humanity. This invalidates many of the variables in the equations of psychohistory, and the future once again is up for grabs. Only if the Mule can be stopped will the forces of history be predictable. As the scientific underpinning of the Seldon plan, psychohistory looms over the plot and is a feature of many of the story’s controversies. 

Hari Seldon’s plan to save galactic civilization is based on his psychohistorical predictions of a coming dark age. He establishes two Foundations—one visible and one hidden—that work to prevent the crumbling Galactic Empire from collapsing into a 30,000-year barbarism. His calculations predict a 94% chance of success, and all goes well until the Mule arises and throws the plan into chaos. The heroes of Part 2, including Bayta, Toran, and Ebling Mis, work desperately to save the plan; they manage at least to slow the Mule’s progress. Resolving or repairing the Seldon plan is the main issue in the novel. 

The psychic probe is a device that reads people’s minds. It’s used by police to ferret out the truth and learn the secrets of people who resist interrogation. It also can be used to unearth memories in willing participants who themselves want to bring to full consciousness the details of an event that they witnessed. At full force, though, the Probe damages minds. In the story, Probes are often used as threats and as symbols of the cruelty of both the Empire and the Foundation. 

As the Foundation grows during its first 300 years, it establishes alliances with other outlying planetary systems. It does this largely through trade, reseeding high technology into remote worlds to help resist a return to barbarism. The Traders become a vital part of the Foundation’s work; they grow wealthy and dominate the affairs of 27 planets. These places band together to resist the growing despotism of the Foundation, something predicted by Seldon’s psychohistory. What’s not predicted is the rise of the Mule, whose conquests divert the Trader planets from their planned rebellion as they concentrate their forces against him. Trader planets serve as a counterforce against Foundation overreach; they are less sophisticated but more independent-minded, and they are one of the last obstacles for the Mule. 

The capital of the Galactic Empire and seat of the royal house that rules over millions of planets, Trantor contains 40 billion bureaucrats who, in Part 1, manage the Empire from within the gigantic steel building that covers the entire surface of the planet. Part 2 takes place 80 years later and 50 years after Trantor is sacked and most of its inhabitants massacred. The planet’s Imperial University Library contains archives, largely undisturbed, that trace galactic history; Ebling Mis uses these records to complete his calculations and discover the location of the Second Foundation, a fact that dies with him before he can reveal it. Trantor is a symbol of a failed Empire.