Talk:Foundation (Asimov novel)

Plot Synopsis of Original Short Story (published as "Foundation") Ends Incorrectly
I just finished reading the original short story in "Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories 4", and it definitely does not end this way: "But the Mayor of Terminus City, Salvor Hardin, perceives the threat and quickly finds a solution; to play the four kingdoms off each other. Hardin's plan is a success and then the image of Seldon appears in the "Time Vault", where he acknowledges that the "Seldon Crisis" was averted. Seldon makes it clear that the choice made was the intended one and that the Encyclopedia was just a distraction to further the overall plan." In the short story I read (which was presumably the story as it was originally first published, since Asimov chose it and wrote a preface to it), Hardin's plan is never revealed, the crisis is never averted, and the whole thing ends on a perfect cliffhanger. The Seldon hologram doesn't say they made the correct choice, since there had as yet been no choice made; he simply tells them the encyclopedia was a sham, and details that there are going to be a series of problems, etc. Maybe it's a different ending as published in this book, I dunno. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.227.77.90 (talk) 17:10, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Seldon never left Trantor
"He and his team are exiled to Terminus, a small planet on the periphery of the galaxy, to work on the encyclopedia."

My memory might be faulty (with my advanced age, of course) but I do believe Seldon never left Trantor. &rarr;Raul654 05:31, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)


 * You're right, he didn't. But I don't feel like digging out my copy of the book to find out what he was doing Lefty 05:40, 2004 Feb 18 (UTC)


 * IIRC, he was sent to a final meeting with Cheng(?). He uses psychohistory to predict he'll be exiled, or possibily even executed. He ends up getting his foundaion though, and I think he was senetenced to house arrest. He dies just as their are installing the time vault, before the colonists have arrived. But someone should really check this. &rarr;Raul654 06:01, Feb 18, 2004 (UTC)


 * At the end of Forward the Foundation, there is an entry in the Encyclopedia Galactica explaining that Hari Seldon died in his office at Streeling University. The Foundation project as a whole was exiled to Terminus, but Seldon stayed in Trantor --Piman 09:23, 26 Feb 2004 (UTC)

He was sentenced to exile by Chen... in fact the sentence was phrased in terms of Hari first and the project second. However, later events might have led to a compromise, being that Hari was old and felt himself near death, and that he was willing to cut all ties with the project, stop predicting ruin, etcetera once the exile had begun. 66.207.110.2 11:49, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Physohistorians and Wikipedists?
I picked up my copy the other day and started to wonder, what if something like that happened with wiki? we find that our ultimate goal isn't to create the perfect encyclopedia, but to let the universe take advantage of us for another more worthy goal..? —Preceding unsigned comment added by User: (talk • contribs)
 * Great. If you are sent to a new planet, with the whole of Wikimedia Foundation, and unlimited access to Earth library;  how long would it take you to build a nuclear reactor?Hillgentleman 05:32, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmm. I also had this idea. I posted a suggestion to Jimbo Wales @ his talk page to change the line at the foundation wiki. Here's a link. W1k13rh3nry 18:47, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
 * A bit later... read a bit more... and look at this. Foundation (the title) and Wikimedia Foundation. Wikipedia's ultimate goal is to create a paper version of the encyclopedia. On page 51 (no clue what this means) "The Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Committee"... Wikipedia also has a "Board of Trustees" and a "Committee". Jimbo obviously based Wikipedia off this. W1k13rh3nry 19:02, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I know how long it would take for me to build a nuclear something else nasty, given the materials, from the information here. Another interesting point to ponder is Asimov's comments on sources here, how many studies are commenataries on glosses and never address the sources. As I've got a mamber of the Good Article committee doing exactly that on Talk:Albigensian Crusade, I think there's a warning here for us all. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.64.13.197 (talk) 13:34, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Broken External Link
I removed this external link from the Article page because it is broken TheLimbicOne 18:20, 17 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Who's who in Asimov

Encyclopedists cliffhanger?
In 'The Encyclopedists,' details as to Hardin's plans for dealing with the four kingdoms are not mentioned directly. The solution to the puzzle was only given in the opening of 'The Mayors.' 66.207.110.2 11:49, 9 May 2006 (UTC)

Which was the starting point of the Interregnum?
F.E.1 or  the Great Sack? I would think it should be the Great Sack, but it seems that First Foundationers think otherwise.Hillgentleman 03:07, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

yeah, that bothered me throughout the whole series over and over again. it should be the "1500 years plan"! but since asimov himself continued to set the starting point at F.E.1 ever after, whe should probably write this of as either asimov's blunder in a single chapter's dialogue, or, better even, as "Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the author)", as IMDB puts it. ^^

Importance rating
Top importance novel? Come on! I liked it too, but... It's top importance among science fiction novels, but not within literature or culture. It didn't trascend the genre like 1984. I'll change it to high.--Rataube 14:23, 13 September 2006 (UTC)
 * If this is to merit "top importance" status, the article really needs some critical balance. I am terrible at citations, and refrain from edits I can't substantiate, but surely it is notable - and has been mentioned in critical literature - that Foundation has no female characters whatsoever? A lot that merits criticism in "Golden Age" SciFi" is true of this work. Surely some Wikipedists are up to the task of helping to collate a more nuanced and contextual discussion of this work. 2600:2B00:9214:4800:248D:F65:7219:B6A5 (talk) 05:02, 13 April 2020 (UTC)

Terrible writing
This article consists mostly of a painfully long and sentimental series of plot summaries. Someone who has recently read the trilogy--and who also has a working knowlege of English--should re-write this mess.

Agreed. A relative of mine I will not mention has, but they will probably not be interested in doing so.

Consolidating plot summary
Nw15062 (talk) 18:50, 29 January 2008 (UTC)
 * The summaries should be straight to the point encapsulating it in a as few words as possible.


 * Consolidated "The Psychohistorians" plot summary to one paragraph. ( Next step "The Encyclopedist") Nw15062 (talk) 13:22, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Consolidated "The Encyclopedist" plot summary to one paragraph. ( Next step "The Mayors") . Nw15062 (talk) 16:40, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Consolidated "The Mayors" plot summary to one paragraph. (Next step "The Traders") Nw15062 (talk) 17:24, 30 January 2008 (UTC)
 * Consolidated "The Traders" plot summary to one paragraph. (Next step "The Merchant Princes") Nw15062 (talk) 13:51, 2 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Consolidated " The Merchant Princes" plot summary to one paragraph. (Next step Add Facts & Characters List) Nw15062 (talk) 17:49, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Foundation cover.jpg
Image:Foundation cover.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 20:49, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Characters for "The Traders" and the "Mearchant Princes"?
I just read through the book so I could probably put these up, not sure If I can find the time though Starlook124 (talk) 13:39, 29 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Started to add these characters, copying the existing style, however the links are not working even though the characters exist in List of Foundation series characters. Hopefully someone more experienced will be able to help out ... Sswitcher (talk) 15:26, 7 November 2014 (UTC)

Worldcat link gives 404: Document not found
I would fix it myself if I knew how... I believe this might be the correct link? Can you fix it? 193.167.228.180 (talk) 08:14, 16 October 2018 (UTC)


 * That is an issue with the authority control template. The VIAF ID which gives the WorldCat Identities link is correct, but to my understanding, "identities" are for people, not for works, and feeding WorldCat Identities with a VIAF ID that belongs to a work, not a person, cannot find anything beyond the 404 error. The same issue apparently holds for all works. I'll bring it up at the template talk page. Huon (talk) 18:47, 16 October 2018 (UTC)


 * The issue is known, and there's a workaround (which I applied). I don't think it's possible to get a link to the WorldCat page, and that would apparently depend on the specific edition anyway (compare OCLC number 990576509), which isn't particularly helpful. Huon (talk) 19:20, 16 October 2018 (UTC)


 * Thank you Huon! 193.167.228.180 (talk) 12:26, 12 April 2019 (UTC)

Planet Summaries?
Would it be worth adding a brief summary of the planets involved and how they relate to one another? Gradualism (talk) 20:32, 2 January 2020 (UTC)

Assistance require in adding a redirect at the start of the page for the new TV series
Hey, I'm having trouble adding the redirect for the TV series. Can anybody here help me? Pikiwedia98461 (talk) 19:15, 26 October 2021 (UTC)