ruminations about architecture and design

Sunday, November 11, 2012

foundation


I'm finally reading the Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. It's something that I've been meaning to do for about 20 years, and I suppose that it was worth the wait. I'm not far into it, but I find its premise to be deeply disturbing, for it harnesses the optimism of  post World War II technocratic determinism and projects it onto a future of the entire galaxy. The anachronisms are amusing and annoying--the gender imbalance, the cigar smoking, print newspapers....

Yet, I can appreciate the vision. The Freudian inevitability of human destruction and social collapse, the conversion of science and technology into magic, and the wisdom/madness of crowds. Ultimately, I think Asimov is a bit optimistic.

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