Foundation

With great ceremony, Hardin receives Anacreon’s royal envoy, Anselm haut Rodric, and delivers him to Pirenne for a tour of the Encyclopedia Building. Rodric asks why grown men would involve themselves in such an enterprise. At dinner, Rodric regales the assembled with tales of his victory in Anacreon’s recent war against the Kingdom of Smyrno, a competing group of planets.

Afterward, on the veranda with cigars, Rodric, Pirenne, and Hardin discuss the changing political situation out on the galaxy’s edge. Rodric wants Pirenne to sign over control of Terminus; Pirenne reminds him that the planet belongs to the emperor. Rodric asks how, without Anacreon’s protection, Pirenne will deal with the growing threat from Smyrno, which covets Terminus for its strategic location between the warring kingdoms. Anacreon would establish a military base on Terminus to protect it from Smyrno. For this service, Anacreon would require Terminus to pay taxes. Pirenne protests again that the emperor protects Terminus; Rodric retorts that Anacreon is much closer. Hardin points out that Terminus has nothing to offer in the way of tribute—no metals, no manufactured product, almost no agriculture—so Rodric suggests that the Foundation cede land to Anacreon’s nobles. Hardin mentions that Terminus needs plutonium for its nuclear power plant; this news disturbs Rodric, who tables the discussion until the next day and departs.

Pirenne expresses disgust at the envoy’s behavior, but Hardin assures him that Rodric is merely a product of his military upbringing. In addition, Rodric admitted Anacreon’s true intention: conquering Terminus for its vast, empty real estate. Hardin points out that Rodric does not know that plutonium is no longer used in nuclear power, and that therefore neither Anacreon nor Smyrna possesses nuclear capability.

Mayor Hardin has a lot of influence at the Terminus City Journal, and when he suggests to Pirenne that he be allowed to attend meetings of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees, the Journal launches an editorial campaign in support of the idea. Pirenne relents, and Hardin attends.

Pirenne announces that the imperial Chancellor will visit Terminus shortly, and that this should clear up the Anacreon problem. Hardin asks how the Chancellor will make any difference and Board members shout that his words are treasonous. Hardin reminds them that Anacreon will soon figure out that Terminus does not possess nuclear weapons, and they will have no fear of invading a planet now mostly occupied by non-Foundation workers who resent the Foundation’s disregard for their concerns. He reproaches the Board for burying their heads in books and memorializing the achievements of science instead of championing the spirit of discovery that enabled those achievements. Board member Jord Fara reminds his fellows that Hari Seldon will appear by video recording on the 50th anniversary of the Foundation, and that the late psychohistorian may suggest a solution to the Anacreon crisis. This gives Hardin an idea.

With his carefully curled hair, elegant hand gestures, and affected speech, Chancellor Lord Dorwin does not appeal to Hardin. Still, they chat about archeology, Dorwin’s specialty, and the Chancellor mentions his theories about the “Origin Question” (which he pronounces, as the “Owigin Question”). The Origin Question seeks to determine the original home world of humanity. Dorwin’s research points to a planet in the Arcturian system. Hardin suggests he go there and see for himself, but Dorwin believes that true science involves comparing the reports of those who already have visited and then making up one’s mind.

Hardin asks about a recent nuclear accident on a planet in the Andromeda system. Dorwin replies that it was serious and probably caused by inadequate maintenance due to a lack of skilled technicians. Hardin mentions that the peripheral planets no longer have access to nuclear power but retain great freedom of action; Dorwin replies that the periphery is barbaric and of little use to the Empire.

Hardin suspects the Foundation Board is holding meetings to which he’s not invited. At the meeting he does attend, the mayor warns the Board that Lord Dorwin has signed a treaty that effectively cedes the region to Anacreon, and that the kingdom has now sped up its timetable to invade Terminus with an ultimatum that expires in a week.

Because the Board members are skeptical scientists, Hardin translates the recent messages and the treaty into symbolic logic that proves his points. He recorded Lord Dorwin’s words during his visit—a breach of protocol, but useful—and a logical analysis proves that the Chancellor cleverly promised absolutely nothing in the way of support from the Emperor. The Board seems resigned to annexation by Anacreon, but Hardin argues against it. Jord Fara reminds him of Hari Seldon’s recorded message, to be revealed in six days, in which the great scientist will likely suggest a way out of the predicament.

Hardin asks why Seldon would plant the Foundation on a planet that would become a prize in interstellar warfare. He also asks why the Board depends on outside authority for its decisions—at first denying the problem, then seeking the Emperor’s help, then seeking Hari Seldon’s—and doesn’t exercise some creative thought of its own. The recent nuclear accident shows that there aren’t enough maintenance technicians, but instead of training new ones, the Emperor’s solution is to restrict nuclear power. The Foundation itself, Harden asserts, has fallen under the galactic spell of worshipping the past instead of inventing the future.

Hardin says it’s suspicious that almost no psychologists were sent to Terminus at the beginning of the Foundation’s work. He suggests that, for some reason, Hari Seldon wanted the Foundation to struggle for answers.

Hardin decides that the Board, as rulers of Terminus, are “hopelessly incompetent” and must be removed in a coup. He tells his assistant, Yohan Lee, to plan the takeover. Still, his own ignorance nags him: His best ideas about Seldon’s goals are mere guesses.

The Board gathers in the Vault, a spacious room dominated by a large glass enclosure. At the appointed hour, the lights dim, and in the glass cubicle appears a man in a wheelchair. It is a projection of Hari Seldon. He announces that the Foundation needed to be ignorant of its true purpose until now. The Encyclopedia isn’t the Foundation’s real task; instead, a series of crises will force the Foundation down an inevitable path. Had Board members known this, they would have considered additional options that could have overwhelmed Seldon’s psychohistorical calculations. Hence, there are no psychologists on Terminus, along with a tendency for residents to respect authority over individual action. The Foundation on Terminus and its companion Foundation far across the galaxy will cause a “Renascence” and the beginnings of a second Empire. The present crisis—a planet with nuclear power cut off from resources and beset by neighbors—is a simple one with an “obvious” solution.

Seldon’s image disappears and the lights come back up. Board members shyly walk over to Hardin and admit that he was right all along. Hardin knows that they’re no longer in charge, and that the Anacreonian leaders, whose invasion begins the following day, will in six months no longer be in power either. To him, it’s “obvious.”