Mission to Myridia

The Encyclopedia Foundation in Dr. Asimov’s “Foundation Series” at one point used religion as a means of protecting Terminus and spreading technology to planets that had reverted to barbarism. In other articles it’s been pointed out that those who worked for this church must have been sincere, even if the not all the leadership was.

While not a huge fan of “fan fiction”, it would be nice to have some stories as to some of the missionary’s adventures. It seems unlikely that the church died, after all, it was drawing upon the resources of at least four stellar Kingdoms, even if the Encyclopedia Foundation of Terminus cut them off from support. And it seems unlikely Terminus would sever all ties. A “distancing” at the most.

For instance, the Mayor is probably still the Primate of the Church, but just in the way that the Queen of England is over the Anglican church.

What if we were to imagine a hypothetical planet in Dr. Asimov’s fictional Foundation universe, that had slipped into barbarism and was on the edge of the Foundation’s expansion? What would the lives of those missionaries be like?

Consider, they come from a highly developed technological world and are now on a primitive backwater like Rossem. Let us call this fiction of a fiction “Myridia”. The Myridians only knew of the Galactic Empire, in fact, that’s all they knew for 20,000 years. They didn’t even actually “break away”, they were just one of millions of worlds that the Empire left behind as it was shrinking.

One could have fun of endlessly speculating on what the world would be like. We could imagine simply another Rossem, cold, bleak and dreary, the populace little more than peasants. Or, we could imagine that it was a world of gleaming cities and monorail trains and supersonic jets. After all, we on Earth do not need a Galactic Empire to have such things. Asimov’s “barbarism” as he defined it in the books was going back to “coal and oil”, not “wood and dung”.

So you are Foundation Missionary, newly assigned Myridia. You arrive alone – there are too many worlds to spare more than one missionary per – and meet with the local officials. They are skeptical, but you do have trade goods, and as all you are asking is to set up a small church (base camp) and have free access to come and go, they aren’t kicking up too much of a fuss. Not after some handy tech gadgets are gifted to them, anyway!

Now, there you are, in a city of 1,000,000 people, and a world to convert. What do you do?

This goes back to the sincerity of the Priests. They have lives to live, they are not going to spend it on something they themselves believe to be false, cut off from all previous family and friends. The missionary would do then what any would do, and start to proselytize.

It would not be simply with words. Like any other missionary, he would be building a “church” or “monastery”. A self-sufficient place where he and the new members could discuss and study Seldon’s Plan in peace, freed of worldly concerns.

Sounds nice. So how do you do that? Fortunately, it’s been done before. The monasteries of our own Middle Ages were primarily a group of Monks working on transcribing the Bible and other Holy writings, making sure they were not lost. They supported themselves in three notable ways.

One, they could sell some of those books, as such were highly prized and very, very valuable. Being hand wrote.

Two, they could grow a lot of their own food, and their structures did not have gas or electricity, and depended on a well. So little overhead, especially as even ancient governments rarely taxed a church.

Three, they could help others.

That third one is what really kept them going. Of course, they wanted to help others because it is the right thing to do, but such programs as they had for feeding and sheltering those in need assisted greatly. It kept them in good with the governments of the time, who were unable to deal with such poverty. It made them generally immune to conquerors as such wanted an agency to deal with current refugees – and future workers.

And it brought in a revenue stream from those in the area who had it in their hearts to give. They were a clearinghouse of goodwill, of a sort.

Of course, the fourth, and actually greatest way in which they secured self-sufficiency was “time”. As they were always there, they were always engaged in “capital accumulation”. Each new thing built or bought was always “theirs”. It belonged to the monastery, so could not be frittered away.

Each of them would die eventually, but that which they spent their lives working on would only continue to grow. Until you have our modern times where some religions are so old that even their “poor” congregations of but thirty people have a giant million dollar cathedral.

These are lessons that the Encyclopedia Foundation here on Earth takes to heart. While we are aware of some long term Foundations that specifically shun religion, we believe that the practices of religion may be of aid in endeavors that are to last thousands of years.

There are many lessons from churches, but consider these two: 1. Your organization must specifically benefit those contributing to it. 2. Helping others is a “business” that never goes bankrupt.

We believe then that the missionaries of the Encyclopedia Foundation in Dr. Asimov’s series would have been about those two things. The setting up of not just temples, but monasteries and missions would have been a priority. It would be the only way that one man could hope to make inroads on an entire planet.

One need not be a religion to benefit from those insights.