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Summary
Hari Seldon, a mathematician, develops “psychohistory”, a science capable of predicting the future of large populations. He foresees the inevitable collapse of the Empire, which will usher in 30,000 years of anarchy. The Galactic Empire is threatened by this and gets him exiled to a remote planet named Terminus. Seldon initially says that their goal in Terminus is to establish a “Foundation”, to create an Encyclopedia Galactica that will preserve human knowledge.
Fifty years later, Hari has passed on, there is a ‘vault’ on Terminus which contains Hari’s recorded messages and is supposed to open only at specific times. Terminus has become technologically advanced (has nuclear capability) and hence faces the danger of conquest from one of its neighboring planets. At a crucial moment, when all hopes seem to be lost, the vault opens, playing Hari’s message. He had predicted that this would happen. That the goal of the Foundation was actually not to create an Encyclopedia but to grow into a new Galactic Empire.
The Foundation faces successive existential threats and overcomes them as per Hari’s prediction. The vault opens exactly around the time the “Seldon Crisis” hits and it happens across decades.
Quotes:
- as long as more than one course of action is possible, the crisis has not been reached. We must let things drift so long as we possibly can, and by space, that’s what I intend doing.” (Location 1385)