"Nothing is more powerful than idea whose time has come." -Victor Hugo
The Foundation
Spanning incredible ranges of topics such as Shakespeare, Chemistry, Astronomy, Religion, and Physics, Isaac Asimov wrote over 500 books and became considered a grand master of science fiction. Using this vast amount of material allowed Asimov to create stories specifically designed to guide and inspire current and future generations after his death, saying that "Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core of science fiction, its essence has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all." Philosopher Michael Butor writes "Science Fiction represents the normal form of mythology in our time; a form which is not only capable of revealing profoundly new themes, but capable of integrating all the themes of old literature."
Hari Seldon Isaac Asimov
Arguably his most epic saga, The Foundation series answers the question on an unbelievably large scale: "How can the future of civilization be protected from corruption?" Using a combination of sociology, psychology, history, statistics, and imagination, Asimov delivers his the answers over a span of seven novels, two of which were preludes to the series written last in order. The saga begins with Foundation, set in the Galactic Era (year 12,035), a galaxy inhabited by quadrillions of humans, in which mathematician Hari Seldon is told by the Emperor's adviser, Demerzel, that their civilization is headed for catastrophe. Asimov relates Seldon's plan to bygone eras like Rome and the imperialism of America. Demerzel enlists Hari Seldon to develop his plan that he had lectured about: psychohistory, or the study of mass-scale sociology. To put his plan to action, they organize a commonwealth on the planet Terminus at "one end of the galaxy" called The Foundation. They are told to compile a massive amount of information about the galaxy into their Encyclopedia Galactica to ensure that knowledge survives the empire's collapse.
The Second Foundation
As predicted, the Empire crumbles. Seldon sets up his Foundation on Terminus, and records holographic footage of himself for after his death. Every 75 or so years, during a "crisis" in the plan, Seldon's recording emerges from a golden cylinder to explain the stage of the plan. Little do the Encyclopedists know: their entire foundation colony is only one of two foundations- the second foundation being on the opposite end of the galaxy, and ran by a small collective of telepathic researchers (psychohistorians). The first foundation is for physical sciences, and the second foundation is for mental sciences. However, when a genetic mutation creates a mutant named the Mule, Seldon's psychohistory plan couldn't have possibly predicted it, and the "plan" is thrown off by his mentalist abilities, including reading and manipulating minds. Declaring himself emperor, The Mule gains control of many followers and begins imperializing. So, it begins to appear that Seldon's idea in actuality flawed and not immaculate after all.
Foundation and Earth
After 400 years of Seldon's plan, we meet Trevize, who is asked to leave his position in governance, and takes the opportunity to borrow a special spaceship for locating the lost planet: Earth. In the galactic library on Trantor, all data has been removed about the planet, forcing him to enlist his friend Pelorat, a mythologist, to help him piece together the clues of Earth's location. When Pelorat and Trevize land on Gaia, they encounter Bliss, who explains to them that she is Gaia, the planet, and everything, even the rocks, are Gaia, and may have access to collective emotion, memory, and knowledge at any given time. The name Gaia hearkens back to the personification of Mother Earth, who connects all things, from Ancient Greek Mythology, as the single idea or archetype for our planet to strive toward. As Author Dave Pendell writes, "The greenness is all, the link between microcosm and macrocosm."
“The galaxy is not the Universe. There are other galaxies. ... Just outside the Galaxy are the Magellanic Clouds, where no human ship has ever penetrated ... and not very far away is the giant Andromeda Galaxy, larger than our own. Beyond that are galaxies by the billions. ...What if, in some galaxy, one species gains domination over the rest and then has time to consider the possibility of penetrating other galaxies. ...An invader that finds us divided against ourselves will dominate us all, or destroy us all. The only true defense is to produce GALAXIA, which cannot be turned against itself and which can meet invaders with maximum power. Will we have time to form Galaxia?”
In the end, Asimov sacrifices his idea of Seldon's creative problem solving in favor of an ancient concept he can claim no credit to, which as an author reveals Asimov's humanitarian spirit. Interestingly enough, the Atari arcade game Galaxia flashes the introduction words:
We are all Galaxians.
Asimov never decided how to continue the series with Galaxia, so he wrote two Prequels: Prelude to Foundation and Forward The Foundation, where Hari Seldon uses the Empire's main planet Trantor and its many subsections as a microcosm for the galaxy to develop psychohistory with his special telepathic Granddaughter, Wanda. Deciphering the series as a whole, which connects with his 'Robots' and 'Empire' series also, I realized that Asimov is not simply asking us to form Galaxia. He is asking for people to interpret these books and other prophetic texts as The Second Foundation would Seldon's Plan, and develop non-verbal communication by beginning symbolically. From there, the growing idea and awareness of unity will take root into an even greater structure. A combination of both groups (The Second Foundation) and 'Ideaspace' (Gaia- see below) are what I believe Asimov would advise through his books.
Beginning with Luminaries, each post has described different levels of humanity's connection to one another, with knowledge of this almost entirely from The Swamp Thing and The Foundation. The idea (whose time has come more than ever!) is the singular consciousness vision of Asimov's Gaia. The plot of The Foundation is not unlike the Ancient Chinese prediction system called the I Ching. However, in our modern era there are a number of different entities that predict behavior of populations:
Gaia and Ideaspace
The collective conscious or unconscious includes emotional instincts, mythologies, symbols, and archetypes. The symbol for the collective unconscious is a mandala made up of smaller parts that each relate to the whole, and can serve as a personal meditation tool. On a wider scale, many artistic mediums may allow ideas to become collective spaces of new reality, or Ideaspace. The process of sharing collective ideas are what seasoned artists specialize in best. Artist Arik "Moonhawk" Roper's project encapsulates this process: "Shadowscapes is an image series based on pure imagination and inner visions. The project is inspired by my interest in the idea that every creative concept is a new reality. Initially, this new reality may be limited to only one mind but the more the concept is articulated and illustrated, the more sentience it acquires. As other minds participate in the imagining of this idea it grows to potentially infinite horizons until we are all creative collaborators in a vast reality that started as a dream, not unlike the one in which you are reading these words. These images are merely seeds of creation, water them if you wish."
Alex Grey's "Collective Vision"
www.alexgrey.com
Beginning with Luminaries, each post has described different levels of humanity's connection to one another, with knowledge of this almost entirely from The Swamp Thing and The Foundation. The idea (whose time has come more than ever!) is the singular consciousness vision of Asimov's Gaia. The plot of The Foundation is not unlike the Ancient Chinese prediction system called the I Ching. However, in our modern era there are a number of different entities that predict behavior of populations:
- Google can use search results and dates of searches to determine future trends and events referred to as "predictive programming"
- Facebook can collect information, and use events, groups and data for long-term projections of the future as well.
- Terrence McKenna has expanded a model of the I Ching to a prediction system based on the appearance of new ideas called Novelty. The new model is charted on a graph of time and novelty called "Time Wave Zero."
Gaia and Ideaspace
The collective conscious or unconscious includes emotional instincts, mythologies, symbols, and archetypes. The symbol for the collective unconscious is a mandala made up of smaller parts that each relate to the whole, and can serve as a personal meditation tool. On a wider scale, many artistic mediums may allow ideas to become collective spaces of new reality, or Ideaspace. The process of sharing collective ideas are what seasoned artists specialize in best. Artist Arik "Moonhawk" Roper's project encapsulates this process: "Shadowscapes is an image series based on pure imagination and inner visions. The project is inspired by my interest in the idea that every creative concept is a new reality. Initially, this new reality may be limited to only one mind but the more the concept is articulated and illustrated, the more sentience it acquires. As other minds participate in the imagining of this idea it grows to potentially infinite horizons until we are all creative collaborators in a vast reality that started as a dream, not unlike the one in which you are reading these words. These images are merely seeds of creation, water them if you wish."
Graphic Novelist Alan Moore shares his thesis of Ideas creating a collective reality.
"An Idea may be a pebble, a rock, a mountain, or a whole continent in terms of its stature, but the important thing is that it exists, at least metaphysically, as a solid object in this mutually-accessible terrain of mind that I'm describing. Thus, numerous different people, all "wandering" in their minds, might conceivably stumble across the same idea almost at once, like separate hill-walkers all having happened upon the same distinctive landmark.
This means that navigation in Ideaspace, are more like the navigational rules of the Internet, with one idea hot-linked to another, than the navigational rueles that are employed on an average car journey. It would also seem that Time, as a phenomoneon, doesn't apply in the same way to the realm of the mind as it does in our time-locked material realm.
Everyday ideas could be seen as common minnows that swarm around the coastal waters of our ocean of Idea Space, easily reached for and caught by anyone. Ideas that are more uncommon are rarer, further out, require a bit more wading or possibly even snorkelling to locate them. Artists and writers and other creators, therefore, tend to be judged upon how far they have travelled in persuit of their catch."
Using art as Ideaspace is one method of creating unity with others. The other method is physically doing so. Manly P. Hall concluded his book Mysteries of the Mandala with a crystal clear message for the survival of the human race:
"When all work together for common survival, realizing that the failure of one part must finally end in disaster for all, we might be able to establish a philosophical commonwealth. The first step is the reorganization of society through the realization of the universal purpose." In other words, if universal ideals like art and music, which create shared space, infuse love and other emotions, and unite an unlimited number of people are considered most important when making decisions, every step of the way will increase our unity.
Rhonda Byrne suggests the best method for eradicating self consciousness: "When we shift our awareness or 'frequency' from self-consciousness -- where fear, impossibility or feelings of separation reside -- to Cosmic Consciousness, which is in total HARMONY with the Universe and where none of those feelings exist, then anything is possible."
It is my hope that Asimov, and other amazing prophets, will rekindle a sense of collectivism that ancient cultures had with mythology, symbols, and abstract thinking based in the right hemisphere of the brain that supplies understanding of infinite unity. Visionary Artist Alex Grey captures this incredible state of mind in his Collective Vision: "The many faces of Collective Vision united by the mandalic eye-field suggest both expansion of consciousness and sharing of consciousness with other beings. The painting was based on a profoundly ego dissolving entheogenic mystical trance where I heard the words "Infinite Oneness... The Oneness should never forget the Infinitude and the Infinitude should never forget the Oneness...
www.alexgrey.com
