Foundation
released 2021
www.ink2quill.com

“Foundation” is an American, sci-fi streaming series based on the Isaac Asimov Foundation Series with a ginormous caste of very talented people. This streaming series has one of the largest size cast of workers I have ever seen in a streaming series. It’s a really good thing to see so many highly talented and devoted people working on such a great project that is “Foundation”. It was created by Josh Friedman and David S. Goyer and is directed by Alex Graves, Roxann Dawson, David S. Goyer, Jennifer Phang, Andrew Bernstein, Rupert Sanders and Mark Tonderai. The writing credits are many and include Isaac Asimov (of course), Josh Friedman, David S. Goyer, Sarah Nolen, Olivia Purnell, Jane Espenson, Leigh Dana Jackson, Addie Manis, Bob Oltra, Lauren Bello, Marcus Gardley, Victoria Morrow, Caitlin Saunders, Eric Carrasco, Joelle Garfinkel and David Kob. It stars a huge, huge caste which include Jared Harris, Lou Llobell, Leah Harvey, Terrence Mann, Lee Pace, Laura Birn, Cassian Bilton, Daniel McPherson, Sasha Behar, Elliot Cowan, Kubbra Sait, Clarke Peters, Alfred Enoch, Ella-Rae Smith, Haqi Ali, Anthony Barclay, Vanessa Ifediora, Judith Shekoni, Dimitri Leonidas, Chipo Chung, Rowena King, Jade Harrison, Kim Adis, Afolabi Alli, Joyce Grey-Carter, Kez Anderson, Philip Glenister, Callina Liang, Brian F. Mulvey, Wale Ojo, Seham Aar, Laila Pyne, Shane Quigley-Murphy and many more.

Foundation IMDb webpage

Foundation Goodreads webpage

Isaac Asimov Goodreads webpage

“Foundation” is the story of a galaxy on the brink of a turmoil it is not accustomed to dealing with. The three genetic clones of Cleon, (the original Emperor of the galaxy), rule simultaneously over the galaxy and worry about their succession when the theories of Hari Seldon’s psychohistory are presented to them. BTW the three clones of Cleon brilliantly played by Lee Pace, Terrence Mann, Cassian Bilton do an incredible job in their roles. Jared Harris brilliantly plays the role of Hari Seldon and Lou Llobell is a fantastic Gaal Dornick. I also loved Laura Brin as the android Eto Demerzel. She really brought life to the a character which could easily have been another stale robotic role.

The idea of psychohistory is especially relevant today in our age of budding algorithms, A.I. and all the other predictive technologies that would influence our lives. The idea of psychohistory is simple. With a large enough population, i.e. the population of the galaxy, Hari was able to created mathematical models that would make general predictions on the state of things to come. Where this psychohistory turns sinister is when Hari’s model predicts the collapse of the Empire followed by 30,000 years of chaos and hardship. It predicts a kind of Dark Ages where The Triumvirate of clones would no longer be in power. The genetic clone triumvirate Empire Dawn, Day and Dusk are perturbed and even panicked and first decide to kill Hari and his top student Gaal but settle on banishment to planet Terminus. Psychohistory is at the center of the entire series.

One revolutionary idea in this series is the idea of what Isaac Asimov called psychohistory. The idea that humankind could start to make fairly accurate predictions on future events concerning the entire human race no matter how large a group and how spread out the human species was continues to be a thought provoking idea. Other book series have tackled this theme like the Frank Herbert classic series of the Dune Chronicles and it continues to be a fascinating topic to explore. These technologies and mathematical theories are as much a blessing as a curse. In the story of Foundation however Hari promises a way to reduce the Dark Ages from 30,000 years to a mere 1,000 years which sounds like a steal. The problem with this kind of high level, predictive technology is that while the human species or call it ‘Galactic Empire’ may be able to avoid one series of cataclysms it will most likely glide into another series of calamities which might be far more pernicious. It really is a crap shoot.

Another interesting idea in the story was of the ‘Ecumenopolis’, the city planet. In the story the entire planet of Trantor was one big city with layer after layer of people living one on top of the other. At the time I read the Foundation Series that was a new concept for me and I still struggle to see how such a place could exist without over-heating or collapsing in on itself. Most people on Trantor could not see the real sky or Sun but saw what the sky looked like from large screens. Then again if such a planet’s population continued to grow organically and the layers grew organically then maybe it’s not as impossible a concept after all. Either way, this is an interesting concept.

I also found interesting the way the peoples from different planets and cultures were, to some extent, burdened by their beliefs and also blinded by them. One group of people rejected math and so paid the price for it. That is a problem that never seems to get adequately addressed by such cultures and so you have unfair executions and people living in a kind of unhealthy fear. It’s sad to see because it’s a kind of fascism. You understand how important freedom and quality of life are for a better society or empire.

I have to also say what a well done, beautiful production “Foundation” is. The world this talented bunch of people built for us is so well done. So much effort and skill went into the making of this series and you can tell. This is a truly great production and it’s worth the watch. In this day and age of over content where so much of it is social engineering, a push to consumption “Foundation” is a breath of fresh air. I highly recommend this.

John Ink2Quill

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