Hari Seldon spent his life developing a branch of mathematics known as psychohistory. With it he can predict the future, but only on a large scale. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Galactic Empire, and a dark age lasting 30,000 years before a second great empire arises. To ensure the more favorable outcome and reduce human misery during the intervening period, Seldon creates the Foundation – a group of talented artisans and engineers – to preserve and expand on humanity's collective knowledge, and thus become the foundation for the accelerated resurgence of this new galactic empire.
