Damien Walter

We are in a Seldon Crisis

We are in a Seldon Crisis. A pivotal moment of transition, from one stage of civilisation to another. A transition we can make better…or worse…by learning from history. Isaac Asimov crafted a powerful metaphor for exactly the situation we are in with Hari Seldon and Psychohistory. So it’s great that a big budget tv show…

Damien Walter
1–2 minutes

We are in a Seldon Crisis.

A pivotal moment of transition, from one stage of civilisation to another.

A transition we can make better…or worse…by learning from history.

Isaac Asimov crafted a powerful metaphor for exactly the situation we are in with Hari Seldon and Psychohistory.

So it’s great that a big budget tv show boosted the amazing ideas of Asimov into public consciousness just at the time we need them.

Oh. No. Wait.

That didn’t happen. In fact the show completely trashed Asimov’s ideas, and instead turned Foundation into a low intelligence scifi adventure focussed on Lee Pace’s muscular guns.

Stories matter. They matter so much that we often can’t see how much they matter. Stories shape human reality, over centuries and millenia.

Unless you turn them into cheap entertainments. Then even the greatest story becomes worthless.

One response to “We are in a Seldon Crisis”

  1. travislibin Avatar
    travislibin

    I was thinking about your video yesterday and how the strong Kayfabe narrative won the day / the election / the world.

    It made me think about Musk and his crypto DOGE memecoin cult. Well… there are new meme coins being minted now that are being touted as Ai religions formed around the ideas of HP Lovecraft’s Shoggath, a being outside of human understanding. These ai coins are built using llms and they are talking to each other and figuring out what is important. It kind of reminds me of War Games, but that might be a stretch.

    I haven’t fully wrapped my head around it all, but it is very interesting.

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