Book Review: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series
Today, as my Information Technology Thought of the Day, I offer a reading suggestion.
Sometimes, the best way to appreciate the potential energy of a concept, is to have a storyteller weave a tale out of it. I consider Isaac Asimov’s masterpiece Foundation Series to be the ultimate fable of what the true impact of information management could be on the human race.
Isaac Asimov was a genius who wrote dozens of books during his life. Though he never announced it, he cleverly wove many of them together in a single, continuous universe. This group of stories has come to be referred to as The Foundation Series. I consider it the greatest science fiction tale of all time and a must-read for Information Professionals.
The Foundation Series is a set of science fiction stories and novels that cover a nearly 500 year time period in a distant future where a thousand plus planet galactic empire exists. It is populated by people and robots and features many advances that are key plot factors. The most important of which, is a budding new discipline called psychohistory. This new scientific area of study concerns the mathematical treatment of fortune telling on a macro scale. The unexpected feature of psychohistory is that on an empire-sized horizon, it is nearly 100% accurate at foretelling their futures.
Wikipedia has a wonderful page on this series. It includes suggested story reading order, plot synopsis, and character backgrounds. (Warning: it contains spoilers as to the plot so you might want to skip the plot summary!) If you prefer to experience the series in a manner closer to the way that it was for its first readers, without the benefit of hindsight to his magnificent writing career, then start with the keystone novel, Foundation, If you fall in love with it, as I know that you will, you can always go back and read the prologues and surprise tie-ins to his other books.
There are two primary reasons why I recommend this book to Information Professionals. First, the plot, uniquely revolves around knowledge management. Second, it is a virtual treatise on the moral implications to that same topic. First of all, without ruining any plot points, the series is all about a small group strategically and secretly controlling data, information, knowledge, and wisdom over a five hundred year period in order to reduce the dark ages between two galactic empires from a predicted 30,000 years to only 1000. This group literally employs information as a competitive advantage to influence people, events, and whole civilizations with the goal of both personally surviving and creating a beneficial outcome. The only thing that they have as a weapon, commerce token, and diplomatic tool is what they know that others do not. The moral implications of this situation apply directly to Information Professionals’ daily trials and tribulations. In the book, those with knowledge of true circumstances are faced with one ethical dilemma after another in employing it. Individual liberty vs. group profit, privacy vs. action, and the needs of the many vs. the few are but some of these classic moral minefields. His fictional tales read like case studies in today’s similar moral dilemmas on network security vs. privacy, domestic surveillance requests, and employee’s rights on corporate computer systems. I guarantee that Information Technology professionals will appreciate the parallels immediately.
I expect that if you try it, you will like Asimov’s Foundation Series. I think that rather than be put off by its breadth, you will quickly come to appreciate the depth of the work and be thankful that there will be more of it for you to enjoy for years of reading pleasure. I, also, believe that, like me, you will find that as you mature as an Information Manager, you will value more and more Asimov’s thoughts about information use. While the sum total of his work many represent the ultimate hyperbole for Knowledge Management gone awry, as a galactic-sized cautionary tale to Information Professionals, it is priceless. I hope you enjoy it!
This book recommendation is my Information Technology Thought of the Day for October 8, 2009.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
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