Speculation about the ending of Foundation and Earth

[dekket]

I was just thinking about the ending of Foundation and Earth, with the comments/fear of 'something other", i.e. non-humans.
Does anyone know, or have heard any rumours, or even willing to make a guess, about where they think Asimov was heading?
It would be interesting to know if there was a final destination in mind for the entire Foundation/Robots series.

[Abyssimal]

He also says something like: "It's not as if the threat wasn't already there."

I think he may be alluding to some conflict coming from Solaria.

[ghost8772]

my feeling was it was an extension of the fundamental flaw in Hari Seldon's foundation. the worst time the foundations really had was when the Mule showed up. non humans were not taken into consideration. Gaia was proactive, the foundations were reactive.

[manephelien]

My guess is the Solarians too, although obviously one can't be sure. On the other hand, the Solarians are isolationists and literally don't care one jot what happens to the rest of the Universe, so they're hardly a threat to the other billions of settled planets.

[ghost8772]

I recall at the end of F&E that they did discuss the solarians, but since they were humans, and even the robots made there were designed by humans, that psychohistory would still cover their psychology. don't recall it exactly, but I think it was a final discussion between Golan, Daneel, and maybe the gaian, and the other historian person... the sidekick. the solarian they brought along was not part of the discussion. maybe daneel wasn't either. but I recall that the solarians were brought up. and decided that they were humans despite their changes. of course the characters might be wrong, since becoming asexual is a mutation, and the Mule was defined as a mutant, but hey.

[manephelien]

I think they decided in favor of Galaxia in order to protect human civilization from any other intelligent species from another galaxy. Apparently there aren't any in ours, in the Foundation series.

[ghost8772]

Originally Posted by manephelien

I think they decided in favor of Galaxia in order to protect human civilization from any other intelligent species from another galaxy. Apparently there aren't any in ours, in the Foundation series.

Including humans? lol

[manephelien]

Well... Maybe I should've said sentient. You can be sentient and incredibly unintelligent.