The nature of a non-profit is much like a for profit in many ways, and
the Encyclopedia Foundation is no exception. Business plans and budgets
are as needful for either. And non-profits – like for profits –
actually compete. Sounds funny, but they do. Same as churches, though
that sounds even funnier.
But consider. Each person only has so
much money. Much will be spent on living expenses, some on luxuries,
and if the person is blessed, some will be available for doing
charitable works. There are tens of thousands of charitable non-profits
though, and he can’t give to them all. So non-profits (and churches)
try to market themselves.
For a non-profit, this would be the
claim that your charitable dollar goes further with them then other
charities. Or perhaps they are filling a specific niche you like that
others aren’t. Donating to the Red Cross might be good if you value
reliability, but if you value some unusual charity like “blankets for
handicapped puppies” you’ll have to look further!
Churches must
be competitive, too. One of the nice evolutions of Christian thought
since the founding of the United States is simply this – they are nicer.
When churches were a single unified whole, and attendance was law,
they were very harsh in the message. But when freedom of religion was
established, and people only came to your church if they wanted to, you
had to stop with the scary talk of hell for unbaptized babies, and start
with what had been the original peace and light message. It made them
better. Competition usually does.
What of the Encyclopedia
Foundation? Well, we’re different than other foundations. And other
charities. And churches and businesses.
You see, in our business
plan, we specifically do not worry about competition. In fact, we
actively wish it. We are a Foundation in which the more “competition”
we have, the happier we are. We want our ideas taken and used by
others, whether they credit us or not. We want our plans for the
preservation of knowledge to be looked over by others, and put to those
people’s use. We want tons of competitors, each of them looking over
our shoulder to learn the best ways to preserve books.
We want
them all to “steal” our hard won knowledge, we want them to make use of
all of our efforts, to do their own book preserving projects!
Our
ideal dream would be that some rich celebrity gets behind this cause,
but either doesn’t hear of us, or doesn’t care, and makes it his or her
own. And goes on television telling everyone exactly how to preserve
knowledge for ten thousand years! And, taking all the credit, starts a
movement in which metal disc books are hid in safe rooms and vaults in
at least 75% of the houses in America!
Are we crazy? No. It’s
just that the point of the Encyclopedia Foundation is not to “make
money” like a for profit, or even to “get a larger portion of the
charitable donations available” like a regular non-profit. The goal is
to preserve knowledge, and the more people doing that, the more likely
it is that at least one of them will succeed.
Don’t
misunderstand, we are as human as anyone. Given a choice between
“knowledge preserved with people knowing it was us” versus “knowledge
preserved because some B-list starlet claimed our idea as hers” I
suppose that we’d prefer people know it was us. Kind of. Probably not
as much as you think. For unlike that hypothetical B-list celeb, we
know something she would not. “Sic transit Gloria mundi”, or “this
earthly glory is fleeting”.
No one cares who thought of what.
That it’s thought and done is all that counts. “The deed is everything,
the glory is naught” said Goethe. And what if in 200 years, due solely
to the idea of preserving knowledge, that the B-list celebs name was
known instead of ours? It wouldn’t matter. It would only be a name.
They would no more “know” her – or us – than you “know” any name from
the past. You know a name, you never know the person.
Ever hear
of “Sargon”? Sure. And you might – if you were pretty well educated –
rattle off some data. But do you “know” him? And does your knowledge
or lack of knowledge of him in any way change that he’s dead?
If
you don’t understand that, don’t worry, it’s not that important, but the
point is that we understand it. The deed is everything. The point is
to have the knowledge last ten thousand years – and in our very business
plan we state that if someone is inspired by us to do that, then we
count that as a win! And we do. We also are the first to point out
that it isn’t actually our idea, anyway. The late great Dr. Isaac
Asimov dreamt it up for a fiction book! And others before him had the
idea – such as anyone who ever helped on the Library of Alexandria in
ancient Egypt!
We don’t even claim that we are unique in
welcoming competition. There are other long range Foundations (notably
“The Long Now”) that are thinking in terms of ten thousand years, and we
are very, very glad of that. At least when we have an abundance of
metal discs we can send some to them. That way even if we don’t
succeed, they might, and their success will be our success, too!
The
Encyclopedia Foundation welcomes competition, and hopes that any who
wish to do exactly as we are doing contact us. We will be happy to tell
you how. It will take you a lot of good hard work, that will never end
in your lifetime or your great-grandchildren’s lifetime, and that you
will probably never be recognized for. But you will know it is worth
it. Those who know and love you will know it is worth it.
And if the knowledge is one day needed, those you save in some distant future will know it was worth it.
“The deed is everything…”
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Foundation and Preparations
At the Encyclopedia Foundation, we are well familiar with the old
saying, “When you are busy fighting alligators, it’s difficult to
remember that your job was to drain the swamp.” Sometimes, a thing you
must do to accomplish your goal takes so much effort, it can seem like
you forgot your original goal.
Consider the importance of preserving knowledge, the goal of the Encyclopedia Foundation. How do you do that? You make a plan. But here’s the funny thing, you know just where the “knowledge” is, in the 21st century it is everywhere and freely available, it’s the “preserving” you don’t have.
So you start working on the “preserving”. That can take a lot – and it has. The finding and purchasing of the first house, and its renovation, for starters. But you need a place for the books. A book is no good without a “library” of some sort. Are you ready for the books now? No, you aren’t, the “library” is no good without a “librarian”, so you have to arrange things so that there can be on site maintenance and upkeep and such.
And it helps to have a program that can make the Encyclopedia Foundation financially self-sufficient. So that needs to be worked on, too.
Then, you can start getting books. Had you done so before, they’d be sitting in the rain, or in an abandoned house. But now you can get the books.
But did you notice that “books” and “knowledge” are two different words?
The goal is preserving “knowledge”. In actuality, you may preserve knowledge with a really, really good memory, and passing it on to a young assistant who does the same thing. And for some surprisingly large amounts of knowledge, that can work well. But for the knowledge of mankind, it is not only handier, but essential, that we take advantage of the method of knowledge preservation called “writing”. Such “writings” are put together in “books”. So you need books – not because “books” are your goal, but because they are the means to the end of preserving knowledge.
Seems a silly distinction, but it’s not. If we were only about preserving books – instead of knowledge – then we’d be focusing on how to create a sealed environment that preserves a paper book for ten thousand years. Toss in an Archie comic and you’re done! But recognizing that it’s the knowledge that’s essential, we knew we’d have to take books with knowledge, and transcribe the words in them on to metal plates. That’s a more durable medium, and will allow the words of the original paper books to be preserved for 10,000 years.
But that’s still not enough. If we can say that it’s not the book that’s important, but the “words”, then we must also realize that it’s not the “words” that are important, but the “knowledge” the words represent.
Imagine a book that would solve every problem you have, and help you immeasurably. And now imagine it is in Sanskrit, but that you don’t even know it’s Sanskrit, just that your happiness and safety depend on knowing what it means.
That would be frustrating.
Yet in any project involving the preservation of knowledge, we must realize that when we store that knowledge on metal plates, with written words, that we are still trying to preserve knowledge. Not just metal plates with marks.
It is daunting to realize just how long 10,000 years is and how much can go wrong. It is not just a matter of planning for if civilization has an interruption. For in such a case, the Foundation would still exist, the books would still be there, the knowledge could be shared, and things put back on track. But we must do more. We must plan for in case the Foundation as an entity collapses, too. So that the books will carry on, and be understandable, to anyone who finds them, even if it’s 300 years after a collapse. Or 3,000.
In another article we spoke of the need for a Rosetta Disc with 1,000 of the world’s languages on them, and how we would at least be having language dictionaries of the five major languages of Earth. And we believe that in the next ten thousand years, given trends in “language freezing” that there will always be someone, even if they are a wandering savage, who speaks some form of one of those five languages.
It would seem that then we would be done. But no. What if the savage is illiterate? Another article will explain the choices in some of the books we are preserving, including children’s educational books. But such will do no good if they cannot be read. A third generation post-atomic war savage – to take the dramatic example! – may be a great hunter, but have not ever been taught to read. He knows English, but cannot read it.
So the vault will be very important – it must teach the savage to read the books it preserves. It must let him know the marks on metal mean something, and that he can learn them. And it can leave nothing to chance.
Pictographs are notoriously unreliable. No one looks at a symbol of a bird and thinks “birds fly, that’s an easy way of travelling like a god, travel takes you to distant lands, therefore this symbol means ‘far’!”, but that is about how most pictographs work. Even things as simple as an arrow – well, look at one, do you see how while you see it pointing in one direction, that the three lines are all pointing in the opposite direction? Three being more than one, wouldn’t a reasonable savage believe it was pointing to the left instead of right? If he caught on that it was a directional marker at all…
There are enormous difficulties to this, but they are not insurmountable. How we will surmount them will be detailed in another article. Suffice that you know from this article, that there is more to preserving knowledge than having a book, or any number of books. Much more.
The preparations – the “fighting of alligators” – cannot let us lose sight of the swamp draining job of preserving knowledge. But such “alligators” of preparation do need to be fought and conquered, or the real goal won’t ever succeed. Such work can seem boring and off topic – fixing houses, researching books, researching other time vaults, studying various long term organizations, coming up with esoteric solutions to fabulously unlikely future problems - but it’s all needful.
In fact – essential.
Consider the importance of preserving knowledge, the goal of the Encyclopedia Foundation. How do you do that? You make a plan. But here’s the funny thing, you know just where the “knowledge” is, in the 21st century it is everywhere and freely available, it’s the “preserving” you don’t have.
So you start working on the “preserving”. That can take a lot – and it has. The finding and purchasing of the first house, and its renovation, for starters. But you need a place for the books. A book is no good without a “library” of some sort. Are you ready for the books now? No, you aren’t, the “library” is no good without a “librarian”, so you have to arrange things so that there can be on site maintenance and upkeep and such.
And it helps to have a program that can make the Encyclopedia Foundation financially self-sufficient. So that needs to be worked on, too.
Then, you can start getting books. Had you done so before, they’d be sitting in the rain, or in an abandoned house. But now you can get the books.
But did you notice that “books” and “knowledge” are two different words?
The goal is preserving “knowledge”. In actuality, you may preserve knowledge with a really, really good memory, and passing it on to a young assistant who does the same thing. And for some surprisingly large amounts of knowledge, that can work well. But for the knowledge of mankind, it is not only handier, but essential, that we take advantage of the method of knowledge preservation called “writing”. Such “writings” are put together in “books”. So you need books – not because “books” are your goal, but because they are the means to the end of preserving knowledge.
Seems a silly distinction, but it’s not. If we were only about preserving books – instead of knowledge – then we’d be focusing on how to create a sealed environment that preserves a paper book for ten thousand years. Toss in an Archie comic and you’re done! But recognizing that it’s the knowledge that’s essential, we knew we’d have to take books with knowledge, and transcribe the words in them on to metal plates. That’s a more durable medium, and will allow the words of the original paper books to be preserved for 10,000 years.
But that’s still not enough. If we can say that it’s not the book that’s important, but the “words”, then we must also realize that it’s not the “words” that are important, but the “knowledge” the words represent.
Imagine a book that would solve every problem you have, and help you immeasurably. And now imagine it is in Sanskrit, but that you don’t even know it’s Sanskrit, just that your happiness and safety depend on knowing what it means.
That would be frustrating.
Yet in any project involving the preservation of knowledge, we must realize that when we store that knowledge on metal plates, with written words, that we are still trying to preserve knowledge. Not just metal plates with marks.
It is daunting to realize just how long 10,000 years is and how much can go wrong. It is not just a matter of planning for if civilization has an interruption. For in such a case, the Foundation would still exist, the books would still be there, the knowledge could be shared, and things put back on track. But we must do more. We must plan for in case the Foundation as an entity collapses, too. So that the books will carry on, and be understandable, to anyone who finds them, even if it’s 300 years after a collapse. Or 3,000.
In another article we spoke of the need for a Rosetta Disc with 1,000 of the world’s languages on them, and how we would at least be having language dictionaries of the five major languages of Earth. And we believe that in the next ten thousand years, given trends in “language freezing” that there will always be someone, even if they are a wandering savage, who speaks some form of one of those five languages.
It would seem that then we would be done. But no. What if the savage is illiterate? Another article will explain the choices in some of the books we are preserving, including children’s educational books. But such will do no good if they cannot be read. A third generation post-atomic war savage – to take the dramatic example! – may be a great hunter, but have not ever been taught to read. He knows English, but cannot read it.
So the vault will be very important – it must teach the savage to read the books it preserves. It must let him know the marks on metal mean something, and that he can learn them. And it can leave nothing to chance.
Pictographs are notoriously unreliable. No one looks at a symbol of a bird and thinks “birds fly, that’s an easy way of travelling like a god, travel takes you to distant lands, therefore this symbol means ‘far’!”, but that is about how most pictographs work. Even things as simple as an arrow – well, look at one, do you see how while you see it pointing in one direction, that the three lines are all pointing in the opposite direction? Three being more than one, wouldn’t a reasonable savage believe it was pointing to the left instead of right? If he caught on that it was a directional marker at all…
There are enormous difficulties to this, but they are not insurmountable. How we will surmount them will be detailed in another article. Suffice that you know from this article, that there is more to preserving knowledge than having a book, or any number of books. Much more.
The preparations – the “fighting of alligators” – cannot let us lose sight of the swamp draining job of preserving knowledge. But such “alligators” of preparation do need to be fought and conquered, or the real goal won’t ever succeed. Such work can seem boring and off topic – fixing houses, researching books, researching other time vaults, studying various long term organizations, coming up with esoteric solutions to fabulously unlikely future problems - but it’s all needful.
In fact – essential.
The Cost of Pioneering
Let us think about the people of Trantor that were to be a part of the
Encyclopedia Foundation. Hari Seldon had arranged for them all –
100,000 or so – to be exiled to Terminus, there to work on collecting
and storing all the knowledge of mankind. We might presume the Emperor
himself funded the trip, but then again, this was an exile, not an
award, so it is perfectly possible that those of the Encyclopedia
Foundation had to foot the bill themselves.
How much did that cost? Was it even credible that it could be done, or was Dr. Asimov taking liberties?
Freeman Dyson once speculated in 1978 that space colonization would be impractical until the cost could come down to about $40,000. In 2011, that translates into a little over $130,000. Per person. He derived these figures from examining the detailed accounts of the Pilgrims of the early 1600s and the Latter Day Saints who pioneered in the mid-19th century. He realized that if you couldn’t get it down to that sum, then it would be impractical for any but governments or large corporations to afford.
$130,000 is a lot of money. And while space colonization still costs much more (which is why it’s not being done yet) that cost would be enough to keep most from trying. But, as it works out to three to six years wages for an “average” man, then given some dedication, and a willingness to go into some form of debt (perhaps even indentured servitude) one can see that would be doable.
Those of Trantor getting ready to go to Terminus for work on the Encyclopedia Foundation had some plusses and minuses in their trip. On the plus side, after 20,000 years (and then some) of space travel, we may assume that the costs were more comparable to relocating from wherever you are to the furthest point on Earth away from you. If we figure Chicago to Mongolia, that is a flight of under $2,000. Presumably freighting your stuff would not exceed another $3000, but even if it did, it still would be possible to “move” there for under $10,000.
Great! No problem for the “pioneers” then, right? Well, let’s look at some “minuses”. For starters, the Galactic Empire is falling, and space travel isn’t what it used to be. But that’s not too big an issue, after all, the Empire still has all the amenities on Trantor, so it won’t affect their move. The bigger factor is that they are not moving to a place where there is already a civilization up and running, where they can rent apartments or buy houses that are already there. No, they are moving to the barren planet of Terminus, with little land available, and none of that developed, and no easily minable metals.
In other words, they are actually – in our terms – moving to Antarctica. And that costs a lot more than Mongolia. It’s about $10,000 just to get down there. Taking all into account, you are looking – if you were going to colonize – about the same amount as Freeman Dyson estimated would be needful for space colonization to be practical. About $130,000. (On the upside, it looks as if it is now becoming possible to colonize Antarctica, should any hardy pioneers wish it!)
So those of the Encyclopedia Foundation were in every sense “pioneers” as it would cost them about the same to colonize Terminus as it would cost us to colonize Antarctica, or what it cost earlier pioneers. Which still leaves another problem…
The pioneers of America had time. They didn’t have to leave, it was their choice. They left when they could afford to, or when they could find sponsors. They weren’t hurried. Those of Hari Seldon’s project were hurried. And given that they probably had not been saving up for three to six years, it is doubtful that many of them had the price of the colonization effort.
Back to a plus, they were professional people. A simple cashing out of all they owned may have assisted. Most reasonably responsible middle aged people can, if cashing out, come up with $50,000 to $100,000 by the simple expedient of selling their house and cars and electronics. They were not janitors and fry clerks, they were degreed professionals, and on average of middle age and with families.
So they’d have been able to come up with some noticeable amounts. Perhaps then those who agreed with Hari in private were sponsoring this, even if they weren’t going themselves. It was an unpopular group though, so they'd have had to have done it quietly. Realistically, when all was said and done, it was probably the Emperor who made up the difference. If we assume that each could raise $100,000 by cashing out, and that this was split amongst the average of four per family, then the Emperor would need to chip in about $100,000 per person to get rid of these folks. That’s about $10 billion.
One starts to see why Lewis Pirenne – on the Board of Directors of the Encyclopedia Foundation – was so sure that the Emperor wouldn’t let the King of Anacreon interfere with them! The Emperor, no matter what additional donations came in – clearly had to put up a lot of the costs. However, as the U.S. government spends that in roughly two and a half days, one can assume that the Emperor of the entire Galaxy would regard that as a minutely small expenditure. But how small? How do we figure what $10 billion would be to the Emperor of the Galaxy?
Consider that the U.S. has 300,000,000 people to draw from in raising $10,000,000,000. The Emperor would have had far more people to tax for this. There were said to be 25,000,000 worlds in the Galactic Empire, if each had but one billion people that would work out to 25,000,000,000,000,000 (25 quadrillion) people! So while each of the citizens of the United States would have had to pay $33.33 on this, the same $10 billion would have each citizen of the Galactic Empire paying about four ten millionths of a penny!
While such a program at $33 per citizen would be too minor for the U.S. government to worry about, imagine how much less that they’d worry about a program that only cost each citizen less than a millionth of a penny? In fact, if you wish to know how easily the Emperor could afford to get to get rid of the Encyclopedists, consider that ten billion dollars is to the Emperor what $120 would be to the President of the United States!
So one sees why Lewis Pirenne was wrong about how much the Emperor cared after all!
The hardy pioneers would have had to cash out, the Emperor’s men would have seen to that. No one wanted Hari Seldon and his people to have it easy. But the cost of making up the difference, while large to an individual, was as nothing to a galaxy spanning Empire. One of the Emperor’s fifth assistant commissioner’s secretary could have approved that from the petty cash of any sub-department!
So Asimov took no liberties at all. The personal costs per pioneer, while devastating, were then easily supplemented from the Galactic Treasury.
How much did that cost? Was it even credible that it could be done, or was Dr. Asimov taking liberties?
Freeman Dyson once speculated in 1978 that space colonization would be impractical until the cost could come down to about $40,000. In 2011, that translates into a little over $130,000. Per person. He derived these figures from examining the detailed accounts of the Pilgrims of the early 1600s and the Latter Day Saints who pioneered in the mid-19th century. He realized that if you couldn’t get it down to that sum, then it would be impractical for any but governments or large corporations to afford.
$130,000 is a lot of money. And while space colonization still costs much more (which is why it’s not being done yet) that cost would be enough to keep most from trying. But, as it works out to three to six years wages for an “average” man, then given some dedication, and a willingness to go into some form of debt (perhaps even indentured servitude) one can see that would be doable.
Those of Trantor getting ready to go to Terminus for work on the Encyclopedia Foundation had some plusses and minuses in their trip. On the plus side, after 20,000 years (and then some) of space travel, we may assume that the costs were more comparable to relocating from wherever you are to the furthest point on Earth away from you. If we figure Chicago to Mongolia, that is a flight of under $2,000. Presumably freighting your stuff would not exceed another $3000, but even if it did, it still would be possible to “move” there for under $10,000.
Great! No problem for the “pioneers” then, right? Well, let’s look at some “minuses”. For starters, the Galactic Empire is falling, and space travel isn’t what it used to be. But that’s not too big an issue, after all, the Empire still has all the amenities on Trantor, so it won’t affect their move. The bigger factor is that they are not moving to a place where there is already a civilization up and running, where they can rent apartments or buy houses that are already there. No, they are moving to the barren planet of Terminus, with little land available, and none of that developed, and no easily minable metals.
In other words, they are actually – in our terms – moving to Antarctica. And that costs a lot more than Mongolia. It’s about $10,000 just to get down there. Taking all into account, you are looking – if you were going to colonize – about the same amount as Freeman Dyson estimated would be needful for space colonization to be practical. About $130,000. (On the upside, it looks as if it is now becoming possible to colonize Antarctica, should any hardy pioneers wish it!)
So those of the Encyclopedia Foundation were in every sense “pioneers” as it would cost them about the same to colonize Terminus as it would cost us to colonize Antarctica, or what it cost earlier pioneers. Which still leaves another problem…
The pioneers of America had time. They didn’t have to leave, it was their choice. They left when they could afford to, or when they could find sponsors. They weren’t hurried. Those of Hari Seldon’s project were hurried. And given that they probably had not been saving up for three to six years, it is doubtful that many of them had the price of the colonization effort.
Back to a plus, they were professional people. A simple cashing out of all they owned may have assisted. Most reasonably responsible middle aged people can, if cashing out, come up with $50,000 to $100,000 by the simple expedient of selling their house and cars and electronics. They were not janitors and fry clerks, they were degreed professionals, and on average of middle age and with families.
So they’d have been able to come up with some noticeable amounts. Perhaps then those who agreed with Hari in private were sponsoring this, even if they weren’t going themselves. It was an unpopular group though, so they'd have had to have done it quietly. Realistically, when all was said and done, it was probably the Emperor who made up the difference. If we assume that each could raise $100,000 by cashing out, and that this was split amongst the average of four per family, then the Emperor would need to chip in about $100,000 per person to get rid of these folks. That’s about $10 billion.
One starts to see why Lewis Pirenne – on the Board of Directors of the Encyclopedia Foundation – was so sure that the Emperor wouldn’t let the King of Anacreon interfere with them! The Emperor, no matter what additional donations came in – clearly had to put up a lot of the costs. However, as the U.S. government spends that in roughly two and a half days, one can assume that the Emperor of the entire Galaxy would regard that as a minutely small expenditure. But how small? How do we figure what $10 billion would be to the Emperor of the Galaxy?
Consider that the U.S. has 300,000,000 people to draw from in raising $10,000,000,000. The Emperor would have had far more people to tax for this. There were said to be 25,000,000 worlds in the Galactic Empire, if each had but one billion people that would work out to 25,000,000,000,000,000 (25 quadrillion) people! So while each of the citizens of the United States would have had to pay $33.33 on this, the same $10 billion would have each citizen of the Galactic Empire paying about four ten millionths of a penny!
While such a program at $33 per citizen would be too minor for the U.S. government to worry about, imagine how much less that they’d worry about a program that only cost each citizen less than a millionth of a penny? In fact, if you wish to know how easily the Emperor could afford to get to get rid of the Encyclopedists, consider that ten billion dollars is to the Emperor what $120 would be to the President of the United States!
So one sees why Lewis Pirenne was wrong about how much the Emperor cared after all!
The hardy pioneers would have had to cash out, the Emperor’s men would have seen to that. No one wanted Hari Seldon and his people to have it easy. But the cost of making up the difference, while large to an individual, was as nothing to a galaxy spanning Empire. One of the Emperor’s fifth assistant commissioner’s secretary could have approved that from the petty cash of any sub-department!
So Asimov took no liberties at all. The personal costs per pioneer, while devastating, were then easily supplemented from the Galactic Treasury.
The Language Barrier
It is little known, even among the late Dr. Asimov’s fans, but he
wrote more on the Encyclopedia Foundation than you might think. At
least more on the galaxy in which it existed.
For instance, in his short story “Blind Alley” there are a group of aliens that must be dealt with by the Trantorian Bureaucracy. They apparently read minds, and this helps them escape. Though while dealing with aliens, there is no mention of language difficulties.
In the universe of the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus, there are some references to aliens of a sort, like the Gaians or the Solarians. The Gaians are basically human, though. And the Solarians are human derived. We could also count the sentient robots, but they are humaniform, and originally created by humans.
In almost no cases are there serious language difficulties. “Galactic Standard” is spoken every where, with only minor and quaint regional dialects. In “Foundation’s Edge”, Golan and Janov find themselves on Sayshell, and see a sign that says “Sayshell Outworld Milieu” which translates to “Sayshell Tourist Center”.
On Trantor, in the same book, we see the Hamish speaking a very thick dialect, in which “scholar” is pronounced “scowler” and even some words have a different meaning, such as “thoughtful” meaning “smart” instead of “considerate”.
But in one particular case, the dialect was so different as to be virtually a different language. On Solaria, robot protectors were designed to interpret anyone not speaking the local dialect as non-human threats. Yet even there, Galactic Standard was still known by some there listening to broadcasts.
By all accounts then, the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus could create the Encyclopedia Galactica in just one language, and be confident that no matter what section of the galaxy needed rebuilding, that the collected works of knowledge would be ready to aid them.
Not so here at the Encyclopedia Foundation here on this planet. There are various estimates, but to say there are over 6,000 languages would not be an exaggeration. If one is trying to preserve knowledge for ten thousand years, one must take this into account.
Consider. It is 8,000 BC. Writing hasn’t been invented yet, but what if it were? What language would you pick to make sure it survived readable till the year 2000? If you had great foresight, you might pick some proto-Sumerian tongue. That would be the most popular language for many thousands of years. Or much later in history, when Sumerian faded as the language of scholars, you might choose Latin. And for two thousand years you would be correct.
But neither of those languages lasted. And who really could foretell that Sumeria would be where civilization started, or that Rome would become civilization long after that? And as to English, that is a good one now. More speak it as a first or second language than any other. But it will it always be so?
The smart person would have writing in several languages, to increase the odds of it being understood later. So what do we do now with 6,000 languages to choose from?
There is a project of the Long Now Foundation called “The Rosetta Project”. They have had a three inch disc constructed that has 1,000 languages on it. If one then had that, then no matter what language was popular in the future, it could allow them to translate the English of the discs into whichever of the 1,000 languages was in fashion.
And it is a fact that the majority of the people of Earth speak English, Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic. So long as those five languages are included, the likelihood is that one of them will survive for 10,000 years. One must also consider that our languages have “frozen” a bit. They used to change a lot, but with the invention of the printing press, the words got “frozen” in meaning. The difference between English now and English 300 years ago is not very much at all. But the difference between English 300 years ago and English 600 years ago is much greater. Compare “The Canterbury Tales” with “The Complete Works of Shakespeare”. But also compare “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” by John Locke with any book now.
The written word – not to mention the standardization of language that television, movies and the internet brings – will keep (we believe) our current major languages roughly unchanged for several thousand years.
However, the Encyclopedia Foundation – us! – are not going to rely on probabilities. We will have that Rosetta Disc. But for our own purposes, we will have the top five major languages in dictionary form transcribed on metal plates that require the same type of magnification we will use for all of our preserved works. And we’ll go ahead and include instructions as to how to grind lenses and build a microscope to see the Rosetta Disc with those 1,000 languages.
For the next ten thousand years then, no matter who comes across the Encyclopedia Foundation’s plates, they will be able to read it, or translate it and read it. Unless they are illiterate, but that is another article…
For instance, in his short story “Blind Alley” there are a group of aliens that must be dealt with by the Trantorian Bureaucracy. They apparently read minds, and this helps them escape. Though while dealing with aliens, there is no mention of language difficulties.
In the universe of the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus, there are some references to aliens of a sort, like the Gaians or the Solarians. The Gaians are basically human, though. And the Solarians are human derived. We could also count the sentient robots, but they are humaniform, and originally created by humans.
In almost no cases are there serious language difficulties. “Galactic Standard” is spoken every where, with only minor and quaint regional dialects. In “Foundation’s Edge”, Golan and Janov find themselves on Sayshell, and see a sign that says “Sayshell Outworld Milieu” which translates to “Sayshell Tourist Center”.
On Trantor, in the same book, we see the Hamish speaking a very thick dialect, in which “scholar” is pronounced “scowler” and even some words have a different meaning, such as “thoughtful” meaning “smart” instead of “considerate”.
But in one particular case, the dialect was so different as to be virtually a different language. On Solaria, robot protectors were designed to interpret anyone not speaking the local dialect as non-human threats. Yet even there, Galactic Standard was still known by some there listening to broadcasts.
By all accounts then, the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus could create the Encyclopedia Galactica in just one language, and be confident that no matter what section of the galaxy needed rebuilding, that the collected works of knowledge would be ready to aid them.
Not so here at the Encyclopedia Foundation here on this planet. There are various estimates, but to say there are over 6,000 languages would not be an exaggeration. If one is trying to preserve knowledge for ten thousand years, one must take this into account.
Consider. It is 8,000 BC. Writing hasn’t been invented yet, but what if it were? What language would you pick to make sure it survived readable till the year 2000? If you had great foresight, you might pick some proto-Sumerian tongue. That would be the most popular language for many thousands of years. Or much later in history, when Sumerian faded as the language of scholars, you might choose Latin. And for two thousand years you would be correct.
But neither of those languages lasted. And who really could foretell that Sumeria would be where civilization started, or that Rome would become civilization long after that? And as to English, that is a good one now. More speak it as a first or second language than any other. But it will it always be so?
The smart person would have writing in several languages, to increase the odds of it being understood later. So what do we do now with 6,000 languages to choose from?
There is a project of the Long Now Foundation called “The Rosetta Project”. They have had a three inch disc constructed that has 1,000 languages on it. If one then had that, then no matter what language was popular in the future, it could allow them to translate the English of the discs into whichever of the 1,000 languages was in fashion.
And it is a fact that the majority of the people of Earth speak English, Chinese Mandarin, Spanish, Hindi and Arabic. So long as those five languages are included, the likelihood is that one of them will survive for 10,000 years. One must also consider that our languages have “frozen” a bit. They used to change a lot, but with the invention of the printing press, the words got “frozen” in meaning. The difference between English now and English 300 years ago is not very much at all. But the difference between English 300 years ago and English 600 years ago is much greater. Compare “The Canterbury Tales” with “The Complete Works of Shakespeare”. But also compare “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” by John Locke with any book now.
The written word – not to mention the standardization of language that television, movies and the internet brings – will keep (we believe) our current major languages roughly unchanged for several thousand years.
However, the Encyclopedia Foundation – us! – are not going to rely on probabilities. We will have that Rosetta Disc. But for our own purposes, we will have the top five major languages in dictionary form transcribed on metal plates that require the same type of magnification we will use for all of our preserved works. And we’ll go ahead and include instructions as to how to grind lenses and build a microscope to see the Rosetta Disc with those 1,000 languages.
For the next ten thousand years then, no matter who comes across the Encyclopedia Foundation’s plates, they will be able to read it, or translate it and read it. Unless they are illiterate, but that is another article…
The Cultural Legacy of Isaac Asimov
The Encyclopedia Foundation on Terminus had tough times. The enormity
of preserving 20,000 years of accumulated knowledge, on a planet that
they had just colonized, and with little able to have been brought from
the Imperial Library on Trantor, must have been daunting!
Yet they did it, though as mentioned in other articles, it would either have been wrote microscopically, or would have been a very, very large collection of books, with an index that might have been several large books! And apparently they did more than gather raw knowledge, as difficult as that alone would have been.
It is referenced that they had data on various wars and political leaders. It seems unlikely that these books would have been brought from Trantor in the original exodus, but there was still trade and communications for awhile, so perhaps they got more then.
Likewise, at the Encyclopedia Foundation on this planet, we intend to do more than just compile the raw facts needed for a re-building. We also intend on preserving our cultural legacy. You have seen on our site how we intend to preserve the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge. Those are fifty books generally believed to be sufficient to give one the equivalent of a liberal arts degree from Harvard University, in the early 20th century. We also intend to preserve the works of Shakespeare and the KJV Bible.
Will that be all? No. A great start, no doubt, and if any one disc could be had, that (plus the 12th edition Encyclopedia Britannica) would be the one to have. But we’ve made mention that we would have other discs with all the science and technological works needed to rebuild.
Additionally, besides that data, we will be preserving other cultural works. While the Harvard set does admirably well for Western thought, we will also be preserving books representative of Eastern thought, such as to be found in India, China and such.
We also will not be stopping with pre-20th century Western works. We intend on including works from Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and of course – the late Dr. Isaac Asimov.
Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific authors the world has ever known. He wrote over 500 books and essays and articles on every conceivable subject. His fiction and non-fiction works are unrivaled. The Encyclopedia Foundation was inspired by his “Foundation Trilogy”, so that to the extent we succeed in preserving the knowledge of mankind for 10,000 years the credit will be all his.
While it is only fair than that his works be preserved for all time, we can say – from having read many of them – that they are worth inclusion even if he had never wrote the “Foundation Trilogy” at all.
We are as yet some years from getting to the preservation of cultural works. We will be finishing up becoming self-sufficient, then we will be working on the first disc mentioned, then the rest of science and technology, then the cultural works. But on that day, Asimov will be included. Other authors will be forgot, but he will never be.
Yet they did it, though as mentioned in other articles, it would either have been wrote microscopically, or would have been a very, very large collection of books, with an index that might have been several large books! And apparently they did more than gather raw knowledge, as difficult as that alone would have been.
It is referenced that they had data on various wars and political leaders. It seems unlikely that these books would have been brought from Trantor in the original exodus, but there was still trade and communications for awhile, so perhaps they got more then.
Likewise, at the Encyclopedia Foundation on this planet, we intend to do more than just compile the raw facts needed for a re-building. We also intend on preserving our cultural legacy. You have seen on our site how we intend to preserve the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge. Those are fifty books generally believed to be sufficient to give one the equivalent of a liberal arts degree from Harvard University, in the early 20th century. We also intend to preserve the works of Shakespeare and the KJV Bible.
Will that be all? No. A great start, no doubt, and if any one disc could be had, that (plus the 12th edition Encyclopedia Britannica) would be the one to have. But we’ve made mention that we would have other discs with all the science and technological works needed to rebuild.
Additionally, besides that data, we will be preserving other cultural works. While the Harvard set does admirably well for Western thought, we will also be preserving books representative of Eastern thought, such as to be found in India, China and such.
We also will not be stopping with pre-20th century Western works. We intend on including works from Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and of course – the late Dr. Isaac Asimov.
Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific authors the world has ever known. He wrote over 500 books and essays and articles on every conceivable subject. His fiction and non-fiction works are unrivaled. The Encyclopedia Foundation was inspired by his “Foundation Trilogy”, so that to the extent we succeed in preserving the knowledge of mankind for 10,000 years the credit will be all his.
While it is only fair than that his works be preserved for all time, we can say – from having read many of them – that they are worth inclusion even if he had never wrote the “Foundation Trilogy” at all.
We are as yet some years from getting to the preservation of cultural works. We will be finishing up becoming self-sufficient, then we will be working on the first disc mentioned, then the rest of science and technology, then the cultural works. But on that day, Asimov will be included. Other authors will be forgot, but he will never be.
Encyclopedia Galactica
Picture the Encyclopedists at the Encyclopedia Foundation on Terminus!
They have already had an arduous journey from Trantor, in which they
were not able to take much from the Imperial Library. Somehow the town
has been built, and “fun time” is over, it’s time to get to work on the
Encyclopedia Galactica!
When we think of this, we think of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the obvious standard against which all other encyclopedias are measured by – and fall short of! But our imaginings may be a bit off. The Encyclopedia Galactica would have to be vastly different.
Oh, to see some of the chapter headings in Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy”, you’d think it was the same. The standard entries of political leaders and wars and battles. Sure sounds like one of our encyclopedias! But what of the mission? Hari Seldon did not tell them they were being sent to the Periphery so that the fall of the Galactic Empire could be prevented by knowing who Cleon was, or when he ascended the throne! No amount of knowledge of such political figures and battles over the course of 20,000 years would be of much relevance.
Apparently they did collect such trivial information, and store it, though we may hope not until they started archiving by computers. But what would have been the first kind of encyclopedia? The one that was to have all the knowledge of mankind? The one that was to avert the fall of civilization, and allow for rebuilding in 1,000 years instead of 30,000 years? You know, the encyclopedia that while a diversion, was the basis for the Encyclopedia Foundation’s technological edge over first, the Periphery, and later, the Galaxy?
That would have looked much different.
For starters, it would not have dealt with 20,000 years of politicians. No one cares who was the President of Helicon in 12,399 GE. Or what battle was fought when Rossem was first brought into the Trantorian Hegemony! It would have dealt with solid and useful facts. The Encyclopedia Foundation would have focused first and foremost in “how to rebuild”. From the ground up.
Farming? Yes. All manner of books on agriculture. Mining? Yes. And metal working and blacksmithing and forging and such. Carpentry? Yes. And masonry and brick laying and plastics. What of the sciences? Of course. Physics, biology, geology, chemistry – but not just the latest texts, the text books themselves, from elementary school through getting your doctorate at a University. The assumption is that they are starting from scratch. How to build a steam engine would be handy. Electricity. Plumbing. Medicine would be a large topic.
The Encyclopedia Foundation on Terminus would be doing much of what we at the Encyclopedia Foundation on Earth are doing. Trying to store the knowledge of getting back to 20th century levels. With selected texts and subjects from the 20th century. Refrigeration. Electronics. Rocketry. Atomics.
The Encyclopedia Galactica would be enormous. And while not said, it was either miniaturized, or was a very large collection. It would look like a bunch of text books, and would require a special ordering and a heck of an index. If you have an old fashioned encyclopedia, go look up “biology”. See how long that is? Perhaps even four or five pages? Now realize that in the B section of the Encyclopedia Galactica, when you got to “biology”, you would see at least a dozen text books, taking one from a child’s understanding, to an experts. And that dozen would – by the way – still just be an overview. It would not be an exhaustive compilation of all we know of biology, not even at our “pre-Galactic Empire” level!
Elsewhere we’ve mentioned – on this site, and in earlier blog articles – that the 12th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge would be two of the first sets to be transcribed. Along with Shakespeare and the KJV Bible. But that is just the start.
All about science and technology, at least up to the early 20th century, will be stored. And several fields of 20th century science and technology. And in each case, be it farming, medicine or sewer engineering, it will start from childhood texts to doctoral level. Such that any could learn.
For this to work though, we will have to go further, to something that Dr. Asimov did not think of at first, but later did think of…but that’s another article.
When we think of this, we think of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the obvious standard against which all other encyclopedias are measured by – and fall short of! But our imaginings may be a bit off. The Encyclopedia Galactica would have to be vastly different.
Oh, to see some of the chapter headings in Asimov’s “Foundation Trilogy”, you’d think it was the same. The standard entries of political leaders and wars and battles. Sure sounds like one of our encyclopedias! But what of the mission? Hari Seldon did not tell them they were being sent to the Periphery so that the fall of the Galactic Empire could be prevented by knowing who Cleon was, or when he ascended the throne! No amount of knowledge of such political figures and battles over the course of 20,000 years would be of much relevance.
Apparently they did collect such trivial information, and store it, though we may hope not until they started archiving by computers. But what would have been the first kind of encyclopedia? The one that was to have all the knowledge of mankind? The one that was to avert the fall of civilization, and allow for rebuilding in 1,000 years instead of 30,000 years? You know, the encyclopedia that while a diversion, was the basis for the Encyclopedia Foundation’s technological edge over first, the Periphery, and later, the Galaxy?
That would have looked much different.
For starters, it would not have dealt with 20,000 years of politicians. No one cares who was the President of Helicon in 12,399 GE. Or what battle was fought when Rossem was first brought into the Trantorian Hegemony! It would have dealt with solid and useful facts. The Encyclopedia Foundation would have focused first and foremost in “how to rebuild”. From the ground up.
Farming? Yes. All manner of books on agriculture. Mining? Yes. And metal working and blacksmithing and forging and such. Carpentry? Yes. And masonry and brick laying and plastics. What of the sciences? Of course. Physics, biology, geology, chemistry – but not just the latest texts, the text books themselves, from elementary school through getting your doctorate at a University. The assumption is that they are starting from scratch. How to build a steam engine would be handy. Electricity. Plumbing. Medicine would be a large topic.
The Encyclopedia Foundation on Terminus would be doing much of what we at the Encyclopedia Foundation on Earth are doing. Trying to store the knowledge of getting back to 20th century levels. With selected texts and subjects from the 20th century. Refrigeration. Electronics. Rocketry. Atomics.
The Encyclopedia Galactica would be enormous. And while not said, it was either miniaturized, or was a very large collection. It would look like a bunch of text books, and would require a special ordering and a heck of an index. If you have an old fashioned encyclopedia, go look up “biology”. See how long that is? Perhaps even four or five pages? Now realize that in the B section of the Encyclopedia Galactica, when you got to “biology”, you would see at least a dozen text books, taking one from a child’s understanding, to an experts. And that dozen would – by the way – still just be an overview. It would not be an exhaustive compilation of all we know of biology, not even at our “pre-Galactic Empire” level!
Elsewhere we’ve mentioned – on this site, and in earlier blog articles – that the 12th Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Harvard Five Foot Shelf of Knowledge would be two of the first sets to be transcribed. Along with Shakespeare and the KJV Bible. But that is just the start.
All about science and technology, at least up to the early 20th century, will be stored. And several fields of 20th century science and technology. And in each case, be it farming, medicine or sewer engineering, it will start from childhood texts to doctoral level. Such that any could learn.
For this to work though, we will have to go further, to something that Dr. Asimov did not think of at first, but later did think of…but that’s another article.
Church of Scientism
The Encyclopedia Foundation was a fictional construct in the late Dr.
Isaac Asimov’s Hugo Award winning “Foundation Trilogy”. It was about a
group of scientists and scholars exiled to the outer edge of the galaxy,
where they worked on preserving the knowledge of all mankind. They
were putting into a book set famously called “The Encyclopedia
Galactica”.
Life was not easy for those on that distant planet of Terminus. The Galactic Empire was falling, and the Prefects of the Periphery were seceding and declaring themselves Kingdoms. At one point in the history of Terminus, it was determined that the best way to spread knowledge was to start a proselytizing religion and introduce science that way.
It would also give the hierarchy on Terminus some control over the hostile Kingdoms. Elsewhere we have wrote of those priests who spread the faith, and how they must have been sincere. But what of the Church and its mission itself?
Oddly enough, it was never named. No where in the “Foundation Trilogy” does Asimov mention a “Church of Scientism”. It has simply been named that by fans since the works came out in the nineteen forties. There is even a Wikipedia article on it!
Could such a thing work? Well, yes and no. No, it could not work as described. But if we assume that there were some activities that were going on “off scene” so to speak, then yes, there would be a chance. But contrary to some people’s beliefs it is near impossible to just “make up” a religion.
A religion, true or false, needs several things. It needs a plausible origin. By which it is meant that it must either be a continuation or off-shoot of a presently existing one, or if it’s entirely new, it takes an enormous event or an enormously persuasive leader, not to mention enormously persuasive assistants. It is actually very, very rare for an entirely new religion to be created. Or rather, many new ones are started, but very few outlast their founders.
Christianity and Islam were offshoots of Judaism. Buddhism was a slow evolution from previous faith systems. Most all churches you know of come from Judaism, Buddhism or Hinduism, one way or another. Isaac Asimov was not actually trying to “create” a new religion, he just needed one for purposes of his books. Hence his not fleshing it out. It was peripheral to the overall story, and we only learned what we needed to for the story.
A religion also has to do something, besides aggrandizing the leader. At least if it expects to last longer than the leader’s lifetime. It must actually give something to the people. This in all cases must be real, and even the obviously fake religions do provide real service. Some such services are a sense of community and belonging. A shoulder to cry on. The solace of confession. The feeling of working for a greater purpose. Actual material aid in emergencies. Moral guidance for day to day living.
These are real and valuable things, and no religion that fails to provide them will last long, whether they are objectively true or not. This so-called “Church of Scientism” would have had to provide those things. It is funny, Asimov made such a great point of how it was just a device to fool the masses, but in his life he had far more regard for the masses than that. His kind hearted socialism was well known. But we know the quote he had Hober Mallow say, don’t we?
Whenever the Foundation Federation was attacked, such as in “Foundation and Empire”, the citizens of it, including from the planets of the original Four Kingdoms, always leapt to the Foundation’s defense. This is not the type of action one expects from the masses when the religion they follow is an entire fraud. Clearly, they had good reason to believe in it, far more than just “it keeps the lights on”.
It could be speculated that the religion of Terminus was based upon a variety of belief systems generally known to the Galaxy, and of some popularity in the Periphery. It would have to be presented as a “clarification” or “codification”, as opposed to out and out new. After all, if your planet has slipped into barbarism – as defined by having a coal and oil economy instead of nuclear – that does not mean you are a shivering peasant worshipping the moon. We on this planet are primarily coal and oil!
No, Hober Mallow had to have found some actual priests of other faiths, and got them to help him work out this “new” faith. It would have to have been real, previously existing, and fully believed by the line priests and missionaries trained to go out into the Kingdoms. And note that it had a “Bible”, called “Book of the Spirit”. That either existed already, or more likely was wrote by the priests and missionaries gathered together to form this new faith.
It could be granted that the highest of the leaders might not have believed, but the rest would have had to. There is a type of doublethink known as a “pious fraud”, that would have aided this.
In any case, we can see by this that such a church would have had to be about a lot more than simply guiding political policy. Heck, most all churches in America and elsewhere do that, or at least try! No, this church from Terminus would have to be fully about good works, not just good words. It can be assumed that while Asimov wrote about the church running the hospitals and naval yards, that they were also busy running soup lines and shelters. And surely schools.
And let’s not forget those temples. Each week, at no cost, the peoples of the variety of worlds getting moral instruction, a sense of community and a knowledge of working for a greater good. Politics would have been a distant, distant, second.
From all this we may believe that this church did not actually die, though it was not mentioned in the series after the book “Foundation”. But given that they were well established in many star systems, had a membership of billions, and that eventually so many planets were a part of the Foundation Federation that they’d not have cared about whether missionaries came or not, we may assume it continued to grow.
In fact, we may assume it grew a lot. Consider in the other books afterward how reverentially people spoke of the Foundation. “It is foretold it cannot fall!” and such awe-filled regard as that. Clearly the inhabitants of all the Foundation Federation, and the other third of the galaxy under their influence, and the last third of the galaxy that only had heard of them, all felt that there was something mystical about the Foundation Federation!
Clearly, the church, no matter how first started, grew! And could only have done so through good works. In these new Foundation novels that some are writing, it would be nice if some mention of that church could be made!
Life was not easy for those on that distant planet of Terminus. The Galactic Empire was falling, and the Prefects of the Periphery were seceding and declaring themselves Kingdoms. At one point in the history of Terminus, it was determined that the best way to spread knowledge was to start a proselytizing religion and introduce science that way.
It would also give the hierarchy on Terminus some control over the hostile Kingdoms. Elsewhere we have wrote of those priests who spread the faith, and how they must have been sincere. But what of the Church and its mission itself?
Oddly enough, it was never named. No where in the “Foundation Trilogy” does Asimov mention a “Church of Scientism”. It has simply been named that by fans since the works came out in the nineteen forties. There is even a Wikipedia article on it!
Could such a thing work? Well, yes and no. No, it could not work as described. But if we assume that there were some activities that were going on “off scene” so to speak, then yes, there would be a chance. But contrary to some people’s beliefs it is near impossible to just “make up” a religion.
A religion, true or false, needs several things. It needs a plausible origin. By which it is meant that it must either be a continuation or off-shoot of a presently existing one, or if it’s entirely new, it takes an enormous event or an enormously persuasive leader, not to mention enormously persuasive assistants. It is actually very, very rare for an entirely new religion to be created. Or rather, many new ones are started, but very few outlast their founders.
Christianity and Islam were offshoots of Judaism. Buddhism was a slow evolution from previous faith systems. Most all churches you know of come from Judaism, Buddhism or Hinduism, one way or another. Isaac Asimov was not actually trying to “create” a new religion, he just needed one for purposes of his books. Hence his not fleshing it out. It was peripheral to the overall story, and we only learned what we needed to for the story.
A religion also has to do something, besides aggrandizing the leader. At least if it expects to last longer than the leader’s lifetime. It must actually give something to the people. This in all cases must be real, and even the obviously fake religions do provide real service. Some such services are a sense of community and belonging. A shoulder to cry on. The solace of confession. The feeling of working for a greater purpose. Actual material aid in emergencies. Moral guidance for day to day living.
These are real and valuable things, and no religion that fails to provide them will last long, whether they are objectively true or not. This so-called “Church of Scientism” would have had to provide those things. It is funny, Asimov made such a great point of how it was just a device to fool the masses, but in his life he had far more regard for the masses than that. His kind hearted socialism was well known. But we know the quote he had Hober Mallow say, don’t we?
Whenever the Foundation Federation was attacked, such as in “Foundation and Empire”, the citizens of it, including from the planets of the original Four Kingdoms, always leapt to the Foundation’s defense. This is not the type of action one expects from the masses when the religion they follow is an entire fraud. Clearly, they had good reason to believe in it, far more than just “it keeps the lights on”.
It could be speculated that the religion of Terminus was based upon a variety of belief systems generally known to the Galaxy, and of some popularity in the Periphery. It would have to be presented as a “clarification” or “codification”, as opposed to out and out new. After all, if your planet has slipped into barbarism – as defined by having a coal and oil economy instead of nuclear – that does not mean you are a shivering peasant worshipping the moon. We on this planet are primarily coal and oil!
No, Hober Mallow had to have found some actual priests of other faiths, and got them to help him work out this “new” faith. It would have to have been real, previously existing, and fully believed by the line priests and missionaries trained to go out into the Kingdoms. And note that it had a “Bible”, called “Book of the Spirit”. That either existed already, or more likely was wrote by the priests and missionaries gathered together to form this new faith.
It could be granted that the highest of the leaders might not have believed, but the rest would have had to. There is a type of doublethink known as a “pious fraud”, that would have aided this.
In any case, we can see by this that such a church would have had to be about a lot more than simply guiding political policy. Heck, most all churches in America and elsewhere do that, or at least try! No, this church from Terminus would have to be fully about good works, not just good words. It can be assumed that while Asimov wrote about the church running the hospitals and naval yards, that they were also busy running soup lines and shelters. And surely schools.
And let’s not forget those temples. Each week, at no cost, the peoples of the variety of worlds getting moral instruction, a sense of community and a knowledge of working for a greater good. Politics would have been a distant, distant, second.
From all this we may believe that this church did not actually die, though it was not mentioned in the series after the book “Foundation”. But given that they were well established in many star systems, had a membership of billions, and that eventually so many planets were a part of the Foundation Federation that they’d not have cared about whether missionaries came or not, we may assume it continued to grow.
In fact, we may assume it grew a lot. Consider in the other books afterward how reverentially people spoke of the Foundation. “It is foretold it cannot fall!” and such awe-filled regard as that. Clearly the inhabitants of all the Foundation Federation, and the other third of the galaxy under their influence, and the last third of the galaxy that only had heard of them, all felt that there was something mystical about the Foundation Federation!
Clearly, the church, no matter how first started, grew! And could only have done so through good works. In these new Foundation novels that some are writing, it would be nice if some mention of that church could be made!
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