Foundation: Cross-Purposed Adaptations
I’ve been watching the Foundation show and I think I finally get what it’s about.
The original books were about analyzing society and decomposing societal factors into aspects (economics, religion, military, etc) - analogous to how science can decompose natural phenomena into specific aspects (electromagnetism, gravity, friction, radiation, etc) - whereupon the behavior and interactions of these aspects can be mathematically predicted to ascertain the most likely outcomes. In summary, it could be defined as sociological storytelling.
In contrast, the show seems to reject that notion in favor of a more standard story about powerful elites contesting for control. It was deeply frustrating since I really liked the original books and it seemed like the show was throwing it all away for the sake of spectacle and a standard “Chosen One” and “Evil Empire” plot.
But now I think I get it. The Emperor is consistently reincarnated via a series of clones. Hari Seldon has retained his consciousness after death by preserving it in a new body and within the Vault (i.e. basically a big computer) to advise and guide his Foundation as it competes with the Empire. Now Tellem Bond has revealed that she has been cheating death for centuries by forcing her consciousness onto a new younger body and slowly wiping out their original mind (similar to the Sunken Place in Get Out).
So the Foundation show isn’t about sociological storytelling. It’s about how those in power (The Emperor, Hari Seldon, Tellem Bond) cheat death by imposing their will on others and deprive the younger generation from supplanting them when their time should end. Metaphorically, it’s about how institutional power (government, academia, religious, etc) resists change and only rewards those that already fit within the narrow confines of its established archetypes. In short, it’s about institutional inertia leading to conflict and stagnation. And that’s pretty cool (assuming the creators can pull it off).
