Asimov's Vision of the Future (Upcoming video!)

Pardon the spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in this one, this is only a draft!

One of the key facts about human beings is that each of us are individuals and yet we live in societies that sometimes act as superorganisms. It is very difficult for one individual to steer the course of the whole species. This is sometimes a good thing there moments that the human spirit seems to join as one and great things can be accomplished. And this is sometimes also a bad thing, for example, man lead climate change is an issue that scientists have known about for quite some time, but the human entity runs on oil, the actions of a single individual would have little impact to slow the rate of change. The organism moves on its own, even if everyone watching this video somehow finds a way to never contribute to fossil fuel emission ever again for the rest of their lives this would essentially do nothing because the human entity is far too large. This is much akin to how the individual cells in your body make up you, but the individual cells themselves have no say over your actions.
Individuality itself is often heralded as one of the virtues of mankind, but individuality is also the cause of much of the turmoil in human society. Individuality leads to chaos, though many would argue that this is a necessary vice of a free society. Individuality and free expression are part of what makes life worth living. Often when free expression and individuality are stripped, as in both the modern and history fascist regimes of the earth, societal wellbeing, in general, goes down dramatically. Fascism does not breed progress of any kind, under these types of structures the soul of mankind bleeds. The happiest societies in the world emphasize individuality and freedom.
Beyond personal individuality, humans also have a tendency to break themselves into groups, sometimes based on traits that members of that group share, sometimes based on geographical association. Different groups of humans often find themselves at odds, competing for resources and power of all forms. With such groupings prejudice also forms, and as these groups persist throughout time generation prejudices and forms and differences between groups of humans start to be distorted in the eyes of opposing groups. This of course leads to many problems in society. If mankind could view itself as a homogenous group not divided by arbitrary lines the things we could accomplish could be great. Isaac Asimov deals with some of these ideas in his Foundation book series, and that is mainly what we are here to discuss today.
Isaac Asimov has long been accepted as one of the greatest science fiction authors of all time. His expansive vision of humanity's future came to life almost 80 years ago with the publication of the first short story in his foundation series. After it was all done there were a total of 7 books in the series itself and the final two deal with the potential ultimate fate of mankind. According to Asimov’s work, humankind had the potential to exist sustainably in three ways. The first two are as follows, through technological development as was the way of the First Foundation, through the honing of mentallic abilities as was the way of the Second Foundation. Both of these institutions had been created by Hari Seldon and given secret ultimate goals, the first foundation resided on the world of Terminus and the Second foundation resided on the World of Trantor, which had once been the center of the first empire.
The First Foundation was supreme in the realm of physical power, of technology, of war weapons. The Second Foundation was supreme in the realm of mental power, of the mind, of the ability to control. In any conflict between the two, what would it matter how many ships and weapons the First Foundation disposed of, if the Second Foundation could control the minds of those who controlled the ships and weapons?
Foundation’s Edge
The third way however was through humanities merging as a single entity, as was the way of the people of the conscious planet, Gaia, who hoped that one-day humankind could merge as one into the feminine superbeing known as Galaxia. They believed that by merging into one mind with one goal humanity could most effectively deal with potential outside threats.
“The Second Galactic Empire—worked out after the fashion of Trantor—will be a paternalistic Empire, established by calculation, maintained by calculation, and in perpetual living death by calculation. It will be a dead end. That is the view of Gaia.” Trevize said, “And what does Gaia have to offer as an alternative?” “Greater Gaia! Galaxia! Every inhabited planet as alive as Gaia. Every living planet combined into a still greater hyperspatial life. Every uninhabited planet participating. Every star. Every scrap of interstellar gas. Perhaps even the great central black hole. A living galaxy and one that can be made favorable for all life in ways that we yet cannot foresee. A way of life fundamentally different from all that has gone before and repeating none of the old mistakes.”
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation's Edge
In the foundation saga, Golan Trevize ultimately holds the threads of human fate, this was a responsibility that he did not ask for, it was a decision that was forced upon him. Because he suspected the existence of the second foundation and openly questioned Hari Seldon’s great plan he was banished from the first foundation about 500 years after the fall of the first empire. He eventually encounters the world of Gaia, and it is after discovering this world that he decides the fate of mankind, choosing, Galaxia, the superorganism. Initially, he chose Galaxia because he believed the slow progress of Galaxia's development would give him time to change his mind if he should find that it was not the right path for humanity. It is in the book Foundation and Earth that he accepts that he has truly made the right choice.
“I/we/Gaia know you are. That’s your worth to us. You have the capacity for making the right decision on incomplete data, and you have made the decision. You chose Gaia! You rejected the anarchy of a Galactic Empire built on the technology of the First Foundation, as well as the anarchy of a Galactic Empire built on the mentalics of the Second Foundation. You decided that neither could be long stable. So you chose Gaia.”
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation and Earth
Galaxia would eventually encompass the entire milky way, uniting all humankind. The milky way galaxy had given birth to just a single species with sufficient intelligence to develop a technologically advanced society, but they knew almost nothing of other galaxies. Trevise speculated that the Milkyway could be atypical, that other galaxies might possess multiple competing intelligent species. He believed that their preoccupation with each other prevented them from turning their eyes to other galaxies, but he suspected that if in some galaxy one species gained dominance they may then consider the possibility of invading into other galaxies such as the Milkyway.
We have not visited any other galaxy, and, as far as we know, no intelligent species from another galaxy has ever visited us—but that state of affairs may end someday. And if the invaders come, they are bound to find ways of turning some human beings against other human beings. We have so long had only ourselves to fight that we are used to such internecine quarrels. An invader that finds us divided against ourselves will dominate us all, or destroy us all. The only true defense is to produce Galaxia, which cannot be turned against itself and which can meet invaders with maximum power.”
Asimov, Isaac. Foundation and Earth
Although Golan Trevize voiced the decision, the decision was in truth not actually his. The decision had been made long ago. In the book Foundation and Earth, the last official book in Asimov’s Foundation series, it is revealed that the Robot Daneel Olivaw has been responsible for many of the events of the last several centuries, he had been manipulated the citizens of the Milkyway from a based on the moon of old earth, leaving sometimes in disguise to accomplish specific goals. It had been Daniel that set events up so that humankind would ultimately choose Galaxia, greatly increasing their chances of survival should an alien threat appear. Daneel had been operating based on Asimov’s laws of robotics for nearly 20,000 years. I’ve done a video covering this character specifically as well as Asimov’s Laws of Robotics, here! Essentially
Many sci-fiction stories have ideas involving the merging together of the human species in a kind of hive mind. Sometimes this is viewed optimistically, like in the work of Asimov, and other times there are sinister undertones. The hive-minded being which appear in the star trek universe known as the Borg for instance. The Borg only seek to assimilate species and technology which they find useful, in doing so they forcefully eliminate all individuality from those they force into their collective. Or the Hrangans from George RR Martin's The Thousand World universe, like the borg they were made up of many different assimilated species. They had been mankind’s greatest enemy during the centuries-long conflict known as the double war.
One of the great fears that is presented with this idea as I mentioned earlier, is the thought that individuality would be lost. Our individual traits and thoughts are what make us who we are, to have that stripped away would be akin to death. But of course, the optimistic view presented in Asimov’s work reads more like an evolution of mankind as opposed to mankind being minimized to become a part of something else.