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.