Why Asimov’s Foundation series still resonates in the AI era

Elon Musk called it a fundamental catalyst for SpaceX. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman credited it with shaping his career. Newt Gingrich made it required reading for his congressional staff, and even Japanese cult leader Shoko Asahara was reportedly inspired by it.

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation was published as a book series 75 years ago this week, and it has lost none of its relevance or poignancy today. Unlike Frank Herbert’s Dune, which is evocative, poetic and elegantly composed, Asimov’s style was functional, unadorned and populated by stock characters. However, Foundation remains a seminal masterpiece of science fiction because of its conceptual ideas and philosophical daring.

In the twilight of a once-mighty Galactic Empire, mathematician Hari Seldon develops “psychohistory”, a revolutionary science that uses statistical mechanics (big data) to predict human behaviour and social development. Realising the Empire’s collapse is inevitable and will plunge humanity into tens of thousands of years of dark ages, Seldon creates a master plan to keep the flame of civilisation alive, shortening the coming anarchy to a single millennium. Under the guise of compiling all human knowledge into the Encyclopedia Galactica, Seldon establishes the First Foundation on a bleak planet at the outer edge of the galaxy.