Foundation and Empire asks a fundamental question that theorists have grappled with for centuries: Can an individual change history? The book answers both no and yes.

Hari Seldon’s Foundation is designed to pick up the pieces of the collapsing Galactic Empire and restore it to greatness. The Foundation does this through a combination of religious manipulation and interstellar trade, which help to preserve the technology, especially nuclear devices, that maintain a scientifically advanced civilization. The Foundation thus reduces the coming dark ages from 30,000 to 1,000 years.

Critical to this process are the careful, detailed preparations Seldon made to ensure that the enterprise would be a success. Seldon’s efforts are based on his work with psychohistory, which predicts long-term trends in human society that are unaffected by random actions of individuals. The project works beautifully for the first 300 years.

Several characters debate the implications of psychohistory. General Riose argues with Ducem Barr that he, as a well-placed, competent individual, can change history. He also believes that the centuries-old predictions of a long-deceased scientist cannot stand up to the decisions of a single, competent leader: “I’ll take that challenge.