Empires

"The Galactic Empire was falling..."

It was with those words that Dr. Isaac Asimov described a situation in which an apparently strong Galactic Empire, that had lasted over 20,000 years, was nearing a collapse. He is said to have based that story, "The Foundation Trilogy", on "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" by Edward Gibbons.

What are these empires, in history and fiction, and what relevance do they have to us? An empire is a word that can be used for many things, but usually for a large and cohesive group, with a strong leader - or at least a strong sense of purpose.

In history, empires are known for two things. Always seeming to be eternal while you are in one. And it always being obvious that it had to fall, but only long after it fell.

We are familiar with many empires in history, the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Greeks and the Romans. We've more recently had the Spanish Empire and British Empire. It does not seem to us that there are empires any more, at least none that we call that.

But what of our nations, our alliances? Can they be said to be eternal? Is not the need for preserving knowledge against an unforeseen collapse or disaster as great now, as it was in the past, or was to be in Asimov's future?

The Encyclopedia Foundation was created in Asimov's series to preserve the knowledge of the Galaxy. And that is the need that this Encyclopedia Foundation intends on meeting.

Knowledge will be preserved to rebuild in the event of a disaster, natural or man made. Thus can the time period between a collapse and a new civilization be shortened from hundreds - or thousands - of years, to decades.