In the very first episode of the Apple TV Plus series Foundation, an advocate says the following about the psycho-historian Hari Seldon’s work — “The offenders, Hari Seldon and Gaal Dornick, are accused of crimes so grave that they threaten not just Trantor but the entire galaxy’s existence.” And what exactly is this galaxy-threatening crime? Well, the advocate lays it out quite succinctly — “…a conspiracy designed to destroy the confidence in our empire.”
Confidence, when it is made into a life choice, is what we call faith. Faith in our religion, in our culture, in our elders, and in our actions. We are such a faith-driven species that to have a crisis of faith is one of the most dire experiences any of us can have. To question someone’s faith can lead to aggression. And, loss of faith in a person/institution of authority can make them shrivel up and die quicker than any frontal attack could.
This is why monarchs of days past would bolster their position by declaring themselves as chosen by their God to be king. Leaders today also proclaim themselves to be successors to previous giant leaders, or as defenders of faith.
As a series, Foundation is mostly concerned with observing just how faith plays out in human society. And its canvas is vaster than anything we experience in our lives. There are trillions of humans spread across hundreds of planets in an imagined future that is thousands of years from ours. In the best tradition of science fiction we can see something of ourselves in a situation so unlike ours.
Let’s look at three forms of faith that we are shown in the series, starting with the widest form and then narrow down to the most individual.
The Empire, the trio of Brothers Dawn, Day, and Dusk, are like monarchs that treat themselves as physical embodiments of the Empire. The Empire resides in their person and can persist as long as they carry out their duties meticulously. If they are unimpeachably righteous, then the Empire is righteous and hence the best possible condition for its trillions of citizens.
But, after so many generations of monarchs, each genetically identical, a hint of doubt is inevitable. One of them has to go through an arduous pilgrimage just to show their physical capability to rule, and then pretends to have a vision to prove their spiritual capability as well. This is necessary if he is to command faith across the Empire. Nobody wants a leader who cannot complete heroic tasks.
On the other hand, the followers of Hari Seldon, the mathematician and psycho-historian, are also putting their entire faith in his and his findings. As it is mentioned, not everyone can understand how he arrives at the conclusion that the empire is destined to be destroyed in five centuries. However, many tens of thousands of people put their faith in him because what he says concurs with their observed view of how things are shaping up in the world around them. Their faith comes, not from feats of magnificence, but from the belief that Seldon sees the same as them, only further. It is partly based on facts, and largely on belief.
Finally, individuals like Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin, struggle with personal faith. Or in other words, with faith in their own abilities and what role they are meant to be fulfilling. They are both extremely skilled individuals, intelligent and well-trained in their respective fields. But, they are also highly instinctive individuals who are led to take actions that they cannot rationalise but which always proves to have been the correct one. To not know why something inside oneself compels us thus is a conflict we must have internally. Instincts are honed over generations, but yet we don’t know when they are in our interest and when not. We don’t always know when to fight and when to fly.
Thus, while the Foundation the series speaks off is the collected corpus of all human knowledge, the foundation of human society itself is faith. And when you watch the series with that lens, you will see that Isaac Asimov is simultaneously showing us the future, the past, and the present.