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Bah-Lee and his helpful robot friend Da-Nee, but Seldon gets into difficulties with the social prejudices of the Dahlites from whom he and Dors rent a room, and then are abducted, along with Raych, to the sector of Wye, at the south pole. |
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At Wye, whose Mayor had ancestors that once ruled briefly as undistinguished Emperors, the Mayoress has plans to launch her well prepared troops in a coup against the Empire. She doesn't care about the outlying worlds; she is content with Trantor and the nearby worlds. But Demerzel attacks pre-emptively and destroys the threat to the Empire. |
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Demerzel turns out to be Hummin, and in a scene reminiscent of Arthurian legend and "the once and future king," as well as the scene in Lost Horizon in which Hugh Conway tells the High Lama that he must be the ancient Father Perrault, Seldon tells Demerzel that he is a robot. Demerzel confesses that he is indeed a robot and, moreover, the ancient robot Daneel, and has been guiding human development since he inherited Giskard's abilities and responsibilities. But he needs the help of psychohistory, which Seldon now realizes that he can develop by studying a single world, the world of Trantor. But he must have the emotional help of Dors. She also may be a humaniform robot, but Seldon does not care. |
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Prelude to Foundation solidifies the foundation of Asimov's universe in a number of ways. It satisfies the desires of Asimov's elevator companion for more about Hari Seldon and the development of psychohistory, and for an exploration of Trantor, which stands with Larry Niven's ringworld as one of the great artifacts of science-fiction history. More importantly, in light of Asimov's body of work, it transforms the magic of psychohistory into something more credible as a science. |
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The novel (and its sequel, Forward the Foundation) allowed Asimov to rethink the psychohistory question and address the questions that might legitimately be raised against it. One strategy Asimov used was Seldon's own skepticism, which not only allowed Seldon to consider the question in detail but to disarm psychohistory's critics. The novel offers a series of restatements and definitions, such as the moment when Seldon is trying to describe psychohistory to Cleon I and to lay out the reasons why it could not become practicable. |
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"In many systems, the situation is such that under some conditions chaotic events take place. That means that, given a particularly starting point, it is impossible to predict outcomes. . . . It has always been assumed that anything as complicated as human society would quickly become chaotic |
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