This post is an exercise of what I’m calling Chiral Storytelling, where you try to tell the “same” story in two ways, one of which is intended by the author, and another which is directionally opposite in terms of emotional valence. Since I love Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series, I figured it would be perfect to tease out what can be gleaned from a full recontextualization. Some points are specific to the Apple TV adaptation (and I’ll warn you it contains several spoilers for the show), but the overall argument holds for the books as well. What would it mean if my childhood hero was really the villain all along?
Imagine you’re Hari Seldon, Helicon mathematician and citizen of the trillions-strong Human Galactic Empire. At least, that’s what you thought; it turns out, you’re actually a character in a story or a simulated being/game piece in a Simulation (these are functionally the same thing). The Simulation explains how there can be faster-than-light travel and communication, but the Empire fiercely controls access to it, and there is no good way for humanity to communicate FTL outside of the “network” the Empire provides. The Empire cares about protecting and coordinating around the Simulation’s observation nodes - planets and systems without reliable communication to the metropole of Trantor are barely considered. After realizing he’s caught in a Simulation, Hari states that he set about mathematically analyzing the patterns in galactic politics, economics, and history, and came to the conclusion that the end of the Empire is inevitable. His model has too many singularities which all presage a fall and constriction of the technological frontier in the near future. Moreover, all the “outcomes” of singularities are likely to lead to continuous warfare for multiple millenia. According to the rules of the Simulation, there’s no real way to avoid this. But Seldon has the meta-knowledge that his world is a Simulation; since he can predict large-scale events, he can place agents at assigned points in time and space to alter the probability of the Simulation’s trajectory.
But is that the whole truth? It’s possible that Seldon is actually a being from outside the Simulation, and that’s the source of his meta-knowledge. It’s possible the Empire wouldn’t fall if left to its own devices or with intervention by the Simulators - maybe the meta-knowledge is simply that they won’t be looking closely for the next simulated milenia, so Hari is free to act with Divine Intervention. Seldon’s the only one who knows that “he” and others are simulated, and declines to share that information with anyone else. Therefore, it’s unclear how “mathematically certain” his theories are, and how much they are convenient abstractions that encourage other simulated humans to interpret things through Hari’s frame. He’s definitely correct about there being many crises - singularities - in the future, but that doesn’t mean the Empire’s fall was inevitable, merely that predicting problems is useful for Seldon’s plans. Hari rationalizes that the only way to “fix” the Simulation is for him to be in charge, so he devises a plan to save the galaxy by manipulating everyone else in it for their own good.
Hari scours the galaxy (or simply was aware of how the Simulation looks from the outside), and discovers an abandoned terminal at the edge of the simulated universe. That terminal contains the molecular recombination technology that allows 3D printing of any physical object, as well as a “pattern buffer” which can store a simulated mind. Perhaps this was once used by the Simulators to inject themselves into the Simulation, though it’s apparently been abandoned and forgotten. This is probably the same (or similar) technology used by the Genetic Dynasty to keep the Cleon consciousnesses going. Seldon repurposes this artifact for his Plan, and prepares it for his followers who will come across it later. After ensuring no one else can use the terminal by constructing a “null field” around it, he sets about manipulating the other factions in the Simulation towards his purposes.
Seldon constructs the Prime Radiant, a device that contains all the models and information that went into psychohistory, which can explain to a sufficiently proficient operator what will happen in the future. The Prime Radiant is clearly a simulation of the Simulation, but even though it must be substantially “accurate,” it relies on the assumption that Hari’s Plan will succeed (which is why you need a Second Foundation to correct things if events drift too far off-course). Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and sufficiently advanced math is indistinguishable from nonsense to most people. So, as long as the Prime Radiant can create a good looking visualization, people are inclined to believe what the smarter people tell them about what it says. Since no one outside of Hari and his closest confidants can actually use the Prime Radiant, there’s no telling how precise the calculations are, nor what else is inside it - a copy of Seldon’s consciousness inside the Prime Radiant as well.
Seldon propagates his theory of inevitable decline, knowing it will draw the ire of the Emperor. At the same time, the “barbarian” planets of Thespis and Anacreon carry out a terrorist attack on the Skybridge, a technological marvel symbolizing the Empire’s power, which kills hundreds of millions of people. Whether or not he’s aware of the plans for the terrorist attack on Trantor (or, more forebodingly, did he orchestrate it?), the timing of the attack ensures Seldon’s Plan is set into motion. It also, predictably for Hari, ensures that Empire will overreact and genocide the population of those planets, so that the remaining citizens will set out in their war fleet towards the Foundation’s world with revenge in mind. This sets up the First Crisis, which can only be solved by Salvor Hardin, since she is the only member of the Foundation who can approach “the Vault,” the terminal of Simulation which stores a copy of Seldon’s consciousness. The Vault is so informationally dense that it overloads the minds of any non-psychics who approach it, knocking them unconscious. This ensures only Hari and his chosen proteges can approach the device, thus keeping it safe from interference. Whether or not the Vault is central to the operation of the Simulation, it is central to Hari’s plans, so he ensures no one can study it too closely.
After the First Crisis, Hari admits that his agenda was never just to preserve the knowledge of the Empire; it was also to create a new power base outside of imperial control. This (and everything else Seldon does) indicates his duplicitous nature, because anything can be justified for “the Greater Good” of The Plan. Unlike the books, the show makes it clear that Hari also has multiple copies of his consciousness floating around, and he can be reconstituted by the Vault as the “same” person he was when he died/uploaded himself. Therefore, it’s not just immortality that Seldon seeks, but power as well, since there are multiple Seldons working towards the same goal of increasing the Foundation’s power.
Many of the choices Seldon makes for the Foundation are ruthless, giving his erudite image sinister undertones. The Foundation openly practices “positive” eugenics. They recruited the smartest scientists and engineers from across the galaxy, and encouraged them to emigrate, selecting for a population that would be significantly more intelligent than any other in the galaxy while also not being timid or risk-averse. Hari stranded these people on a desolate world, ensuring that any who were constitutionally weak would die off. As soon as the Foundation scientists are threatened by Anacreons, they give up their pacifist ideals, and start to idealize martial prowess in addition to enlightened ideals (as evidenced by the Warden being the Foundation representative to the Vault in later centuries). While all of this is happening, and unbeknownst to his followers, a Second Foundation is set up which focuses on psychological and emotional manipulation. The Second Foundation is also isolated from the Empire and populated by mentally gifted individuals in order to hone additional psychic powers. These decisions created a culture that is highly selected to be “superior” to any other in the galaxy (according to Hari’s ideals), and fanatically loyal to Seldon. Since the two Foundations balance each other’s trajectory while being entangled with other galactic agents, particular “routes through possibility-space” are charted by psychohistory, but only Hari knows what is “inevitable,” and what is just best for his legacy.
The argument that the setting for the Foundation is a Simulation is ultimately a meta-textual one. It seems quite strange that in a galaxy of trillions, the fate of humanity is determined by a very limited number of people making particular choices which alter the destiny of man- and other-kind. That, of course, is what psychohistory predicts, but everything we know about that “science” comes from one person, who found a Ramanujan-like mind in an imperial backwater, and convinced her that his theories were unassailable. Was she really the only other person smart enough to understand his ideas, or simply the only one naive enough to believe him because Hari said such nice things about her brain? Clearly, the Cleon Dynasty is not perfect - otherwise there wouldn’t be so many plots to unravel it despite the Empire’s immense power. By giving a “scientific” argument for the Empire’s fall, Seldon can convince all the other players on the galactic stage that he’s on “their” side against the Empire, even as he primarily wants to replace the Cleons with his own “dynasty” of algorithmic apotheosis. It’s nice for Seldon to say he’s on the side of Progress and Free-Thinking, but he did engineer a Psychic Stasi to keep everyone in line without their knowledge. Maybe that really is necessary to ensure the health and wellbeing of trillions - but since Hari is the only one who knows for sure, everyone else must choose between Galactic Darkness as the “state of nature,” or interconnectedness under’s Seldon’s watchful eye. Hari offers a reverse Pascal’s Wager: Hell (a galactic Dark Age) is inevitable, but martyr yourself by following him and he’ll end the suffering early. And the denizens of the galaxy continually agree to Seldon’s Mugging: as decline appears more inevitable, the utility gained from following Hari’s Plan seems like the only rational choice. And when he gets his way, whether or not the galaxy is part of a Simulation, there is no question that Hari Seldon becomes a singleton. All hail the Mathematical Messiah?