Foundation’s Triumph

“That single entity would be powerful enough to resist the individualistic lure of chaos.”

“Indeed, think on it, Zun. We would no longer be forced to keep humanity ignorant of its past or of its inherent power. We would no longer have to confine the infant to a nursery for its own good. Instead, we could once again meet humans eye to eye and serve them as we were meant to.”

“I’ve long suspected that you had a backup plan, Daneel. So, Hari Seldon’s psychohistory is only a stopgap measurer’

Daneel’s humanoid face was expressive, displaying both wincing pain and irony.

“My friend Hari sets great store in his brilliant invention, but even he now realizes that the Seldon Plan will never reach its final completion. Nevertheless, the Terminus experiment is extremely valuable. The Foundation will help keep humanity occupied for the several centuries we need.”

‘Why so much time, Daneel?” Zun asked. “It would be relatively easy to implement this new solution. We could mass-produce mentalic robot amplifiers by the quadrillions and teach multitudes on every human world to use them! Already there are trained masters of meditation in every village and town. With the help of our orbiting Giskardian-”

Daneel shook his head. “It’s not so simple, Zun. Look again at the men and women sitting before you. Tell me what you see. What is the anomaly?”

Zun stared at the gathering for a long time, then he said in a flat tone.

“There are no children.” Daneel shared the ensuing silence. At last, he ended it with a sigh.

“This is not enough, Zun. Humanity ca

“Ultimately, in order for this to work…they are going to have to outgrow us.”

2.

There were far too many archives for Hari to count. They glittered in all directions, like stars, making false constellations against the black backdrop of the nebula. So many of them, Hari thought, and Kerstells me this isn’t the only storage yard where these things are kept.

The war over human memory had gone on for many thousands of years, swaying back and forth while the great diaspora spread outward from dying Earth. All through that legendary epoch-while settlers bravely set forth in their rickety hyperdrive ships, conquered new lands, and experimented with all sorts of basic cultures-a series of intense, and sometimes savage, struggles had been taking place behind the scenes.

Unknown to the emigrants, robot terraformers plunged ahead of the colonization wave, giant Auroran robots calledAmadiros, programmed to subdue new worlds and prepare gentle lush territories for settlement.

Just behind the Auroran terraformers, a civil war raged. Many factions of Calvinian and Giskardian robots fought over how best to serve humankind. But on one point most factions agreed. Humans must be kept ignorant of the fight that was going on behind their backs, or in the black depths of space.

Above all, they must be prevented from reinventing robots, lest they meddle with the Robotic Laws once more. Clearly, ignorance was the best way to protect humanity against itself.

A small minority fought this notion. Each of the soft glitters in front of Hari testified to an act of resistance by some group of tenacious people who did not want to forget…perhaps helped by robot friends who shared a belief in human sovereignty.

“Their effort was foredoomed from the start,” Hari murmured.

Again, the poignant situation struck him deep within.

Why are we cursed, so our only hope to evade insanity is to stay as far away as possible from our potential greatness? Must we remain forever stupid and ignorant in order to defeat the demons we carry within?

The story that Horis Antic had told about an actual alien race clung to Hari’s thoughts. The human condition could not have been more wretchedly tragic if some enemy had cursed Hari’s species with the most devastating hex possible.If not for chaos, what heights we might have achieved!

The little space station was frigid. Stale air tasted as if no living creature had been aboard in thousands of years. Nearby, through a broad window, he saw the pirate craft from Ktlina and thePride of Rhodia.

“This is just a temporary measure, Professor Seldon,“ Kers Kantun had said, before leaving Sybyl, Jeni, and the others alone in the ship’s salon, playing idle games like children on a cruise, with their higher brain functions chemically clamped.“They will be released as soon as we have accomplished our mission. “

“What about Mors Planch?”Hari had asked. The pirate captain lay under full sedation in sick bay.“What did you mean when you said that he was normal? Why does that interfere with your mentalic control?”

But Kers Kantun had refused to elaborate, saying that time was too short. First, Hari and Lord Maserd must help to prevent a galactic-scale catastrophe. The three of them took a shuttle over to this ancient space station, a complex of balls and tubes that lay at the center of a vast spiderweb of slender cables. To this tethering site all the archives had been tied. The library capsules that had been fired into deep space by rebels. across a hundred centuries, were gathered and leashed to this one station-so archaic it predated the earliest begi

Daneel’s robots were caught in a logical bind,Hari realized.Under the Zeroth Law, they could seize every archive they found, and hide it away-”for humanity’s own good. “But once the archives were safely tucked away, out of sight, the Zeroth Law no longer applied. Daneel’s helpers had to obey the Second Law commands, written on the side of each artifact, demanding that these precious human works be preserved.

“It seems such a pity to destroy them all, doesn’t it, Seldon?”

Hari turned to look at Biron Maserd, the nobleman from Rhodia, who had been standing silently, contemplating the same scene.

“I respect you and your accomplishments, Professor,” Maserd continued. “I’ll take your word for it, if you say this must be done. I have seen chaos with my own eyes. In my own home province, the brave, gentle, and ingenious people of Tyra

Hari nodded. “It’s happened so often; those beautiful little capsules out there are like a poison. If they get out…”

He didn’t have to finish. Both men were devotees of knowledge, but loved peace and civilization more.

“I had hoped that you, the great Hari Seldon, might come up with an answer,” Maserd said in a low voice. “It’s the chief reason I sought you out, joining Horis in his quest. Are you telling me that, with all your sociomathematical insight, you see no way out? No way for humanity to escape this trap?”

Hari winced. Maserd had brought up the great sore point in his life.

“For a while, I felt sure that I’d found one. On paper it’s so beautiful. The solution leaps forth…a civilization strong enough to take on chaos…”

He sighed. “But I now realize psychohistory won’t provide the answer. Thereis a way out of this trap, Lord Maserd. But you and I won’t live to see its outlines.”

The nobleman replied with a resigned grunt.

“Well, as long as there is going to be a solution someday. I’ll help if I can. Do you have any idea what the robots want of us?”

Hari nodded. “I’m pretty sure. From the logic of their positronic religion, it can only be one thing.”

He lifted his eyes. Down the long, chilly corridor, a humanoid figure could be seen approaching. “Anyway, it looks as if we’re about to find out.”