5 Biggest Connections Between the Isaac Asimov Foundation and Robot Books

The novels “Robot” by Isaac Asimov (including “I, Robot”) and his “Foundation” books take place in the same universe. But it is not because two floors occupy the same space that they influence each other. I remember reading the books in both series for a while before realizing they were related. But by the end of reading both, the connection wasn’t just clear. It was crucial.

If you’re wondering how Asimov’s two series fit together, I’ve highlighted five key areas where the crossover is unclear. They’re extremely important, and these connections usually go in one direction: something starts in the “Robot” novels and eventually trickles down to the “Foundation” books. It’s because the stories are spaced almost 20,000 years apartwith the “Robots” stories coming first and the epic “Foundation” coming much later in human history.

Again, we’re not just talking about cute “connect the dots” Easter egg tricks here. I tracked down not one, not two, but five different points where the ingenious founding father of science fiction conjured up a character or concept in his “Robot” stories and then made it an intimately important part of his “Foundation” story. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at some of the most important connections between Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” and “Robot” books, starting with the most important of all: Demerzel.

Demerzel is a fun character in the Apple TV adaptation “Foundation.” Played by the stoic Laura Birn, Demerzel went from a calm background character in Season 1 to the unexpected protagonist of season 3. Even in this big heroic reveal, the gravity and importance of the character is understated in the series. In Asimov’s books, Demerzel is the linchpin who saved humanity from tens of thousands of years of chaos and destruction.

Depicted in print as a man (but still a robot, anyway), Demerzel also goes by the colloquial name of R. Daneel Olivaw – and he appears in some of the early “Robot” novels, particularly a trio of futuristic hard-boiled detective novels. Later, Daneel teams up with another robot, named R. Giskard Reventlov, and they develop the critical Zeroth law of robotics (more on that in a minute). This sets him on a journey of several thousand years where he first guides and then saves the Galactic Empire.

I don’t want to give it all away here, but suffice it to say that as Asimov told his science fiction stories over the decades, Daneel (or Eto Demerzel, as he would later be called in the “Foundation” books) remained one of the most consistent characters. Even when there are large chunks of prose where he doesn’t appear, it’s often revealed that he’s working quietly in the background, striving to save the human race he cares for so well.

I’ve already mentioned the laws of robotics, but they deserve a whole section of their own. Asimov’s three laws of robotics are etched in the annals of science fiction history:

• A robot cannot harm a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

• A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except when those orders would conflict with the First Law.

• A robot must protect its own existence as long as that protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

These three are the best known. But there is also the lesser-known fourth law of robotics, called the zero law — in many ways, it is the most important of all. This is developed in the book “Robots and Empire”, and is presented as follows:

A robot cannot harm humanity nor, through its inaction, allow humanity to suffer harm.

In other words (and Asimov does), robots can put the needs of “humanity” as a whole ahead of the needs (and destiny) of a single human. This is the critical rule that allows Demerzel/Daneel to help guide the Galactic Empire with a benevolent but caring iron fist. He/she is capable of making decisions that harm humans – provided it is always in the interest of the larger destiny of humanity as a species. The law is developed toward the end of Asimov’s “Robot” stories, but there is no doubt that its greatest impact occurs in the “Foundation” story.

Season 3 of “Foundation” ushered in the era of mentalics. These are best represented by the Second Foundation led by Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell). But by the time season 4 arrives, I’m waiting for another group of amazing experts to enter the stage. I am speaking of the Gaians of Gaia, the living and sentient planet.

In Asimov’s books, Gaia is a representation of the mental concept on steroids. The entire planet is a conscious collective mind (think of “Pluribus”, but more positive). At the end of the story, the single planet of Gaia begins to expand into a galaxy-wide hive mind called Galaxia. These massive mental communities are a fundamental part of the later history of the “Foundation”. For their origin, however, we turn once again to the Robot novel “Robots and Empire”.

In this book, robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov join forces to develop the Zeroth Law. They also discover the ability to manipulate and influence minds – an ability Daneel uses in the “Foundation” novels, where the concept is fully fleshed out when he founds Gaia and hatches the plan to create Galaxia.

In the Apple TV series “Foundation”, the concept of “Spacer” appears at the beginning of the series. However, in the adaptation, these unusual humans are simply related to space travel. They have a fleet of ships that help the Emperor and his empire travel across the vast spaces of the galaxy.

In the books, the Spacers are a completely different race of humans – and when I say “race”, I mean “race”. Spacers are biologically advanced humans who live on the first 50 planets where humans settle in space. These early settlers are hostile to the home planet and develop their own cultures on their own planets, two of which return more often than the others: Aurora and Solaria.

Spacers and their planets play a recurring role in many “Robot” novels. And yes, you guessed it: they also appear in the “Foundation” story. But not like the Apple TV did. In the final book in the “Foundation” series, titled “Foundation and Earth,” the main characters embark on an odyssey that leads them to rediscover several lost spacer worlds. Some of them died. Others are overgrown. Others are eerily identical to how they were 20,000 years earlier. Whatever their condition, in all of these cases, the Spacer worlds also serve as the critical connection point where many “Robot” novels take place, and the “Foundation” series slowly builds to its climactic conclusion. Hopefully the Spacers will find their way back into the ongoing series soon.

Asimov destroys Earth at the beginning of his stories in order to push humanity off the home planet and find their destiny across the galaxy. The destruction method used by the author? Radiation.

In the “Robots” novel “Robots and Empire”, Earth is slowly and deliberately transformed into a radioactive wasteland. It becomes uninhabitable over the following centuries, then becomes a forgotten part of the past. It’s an unimportant factor in “Foundation” — that is, until the last two books, which focus on a desperate search for humanity’s forgotten birthplace. Eventually, Earth is discovered, along with a very large colony run by a robot on its neighboring satellite, the Moon.

The radioactivity of the Earth is the climatic element of one of the “Robot” novels. It is also the triumphant conclusion to the “Foundation” book series. It’s so important that he even made an appearance in the last seconds of season 3 of “Foundation”. Expect Mother Earth, in all her radioactive glory, to reappear in the future – and when you see her, remember, her story is far greater than the history of the Galactic Empire. It goes back to the “Robot” novels.