What interests me about this book (or set of books)?
- The convincing argument of knowledge as true power
- To avoid barbarism we must hold on to knowledge
- Perennial issues that no matter how advanced we are, we may still face
- This also aligns with the story being similar to the rise and fall of the Roman empire (echoing the past)
- The empire will fall whether you like it or not, there is a determinism here which we humans can’t cope with
- Some sort of connection to our own past, through religion which I can’t quite untangle yet
- Similar to monasteries the beginning is not an expansion of knowledge but a transcription of past knowledge
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p.52 What kind of science is it to be stuck out here for centuries classifying the work of scientists of the last millennium? Have you ever thought of working onward, extending their knowledge and improving upon it? No! You’re quite happy to stagnate
- If they had pursued more knowledge would the empire not die?
- A state built on a purpose, that starts to evolve away from the purpose with Hardin
- Hardin pushes for the idea that they are the ones in control
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It’s a worship of the past. It’s a deterioration - a stagnation!“
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p.51 Has it ever occurred to this Board that it is barely possible that Terminus may have interests other that the Encyclopedia?
- They want their land protected, they are not interested in the intellectual exercises of a couple hundred men
- It’s interesting to think how this isn’t so much ‘don’t pay attention to the past’ but start building the future, the past is the past. This is the main crux of any argument about Science fiction.
- Hardin takes control of Anacreon the barbarian state through the influence of religion. The religion that is created through the figurehead of the king, with all the bells and whistle’s he posseses (technology) instills an authoritarian government.
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p.96 The religion - which the Foundation has fostered and encouraged, mind you - is built on strictly authoritarian lines. The priesthood has sole control of the instruments of science we have given Anacreon, but they’ve learned to handle these tools only empirically.
- The way to get through the first crisis was to pass on the sense of holiness of the Foundation through the magic it generated
- It became better for Terminus to be a flourishing world (due to its proprietary knowledge) than a military prize
- Technology is no different to magic
- Shown by the trader getting his fellow trader out of trouble. He then uses the trinkets and products as a way for one of the subordinates of the king to overthrow the king
- There is resistance to all things magically due to the past or ancestor worship but the plan is to persuade only one or two, and for them to create the society that would use it.
- He demonstrates it with spectacular images produced by a dress which makes a common woman light up as she looks as herself as something more than herself in the mirror.
- I think this is a powerful image and maybe something that people found in churchs as they looked at colorful images and beauty they did not regularly see. Is there evidence that people in the middle ages would have been awestruck by religious art?
- Hober Mallow gets through the second crisis with trade without priests.
- Initial trade only attempted to propagate the religion
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To seize control of a world, they bribe with immense ships that can make war, bu lack all economic significance. We, on the other hand, bribe with little things, useless in war, but vital to prosperity and profits.
- The first is what the Empire boasts, the later, what the Foundation provides
- The end of the need for religion
- The book is aged slightly also, like sexism and cigarettes (cigars) but if anything it just highlights biases we might all have about our projections of the future.
- It’s an interesting notion that the saviour of ones soul would have so much power. Once, this is transferred to the person themselves, through the ability to create technology maybe man stops needing religion. The whole Nietzsche god is dead thing