SEARCH IN THE GALAXY

You are assuming that a personality AI is better than a live human being. I think it's an inferior version to a live human being, and the argument between Raych and Hari Seldon just before Raych killed Hari may have been an indication of that (maybe his brain was being taken over by the AI, and his reactions were no longer quite like Hari). If AIs are inferior, the genetic dynasty makes sense. And Hari Seldon probably didn't want to make a clone of himself, on the grounds that he didn't want to start another genetic dynasty. With inferior AIs, it also makes sense that a copy of Cleon with downloaded memories is used only for emergency replacement, and not as the usual method of continuing the dynasty. There is no reason to think that swapping organs is a viable method to extend life much longer than the normal human lifespan. It may not be possible to reverse brain aging, in which case, swapping organs would be pointless. It's reasonable to assume that interstellar trade happens at a rather low rate, since there is only so much stuff that can be worth transporting between stars. So having wildly varying tech levels between planets is quite understandable, assuming that each planet has different levels of different resources. It does nobody any good to have information, if your planet doesn't have the stuff you need to implement the knowledge. Besides, in the case of Synnax, it seems that something went pretty awry with their religion.

Is there a spoiler here!?

In the books there is no alien intelligent life, but they allow for alien non-intelligent life. Presumably the reason alien life is rare in planets where humans live is because they've been terraformed. As for interstellar spaceships, they are very durable (there is a specific mention of a ship that has been drifting in space for three centuries and is still in good condition), and retaining knowledge of how to operate them doesn't mean that the barbarians retained knowledge of how they work in any detail. That still leaves open the question of what jump ships used as an energy source for travelling, which is never answered in the books.

I think you folks are giving the writers more credit than they deserve. I believe they're simply making it up as they go. Think about this, Halima was completely defeated at the end of the episode but yet, Cleon still decided to assassinate her. Ask yourself, what could be the outcome of that move on her home planet? ... a lot of people will develop conspiracy theories that Cleon had her taken out by some mysterious aneurysm producing drug (now, a verified factoid). I mean Cleon arrives and even before he leaves the surface in his spaceship, Halima dies. What a coincidence?! And along with that, others will pose the idea that Cleon had various versions of himself, walk different parts of the spiral so that the real Cleon only walked the final 10 miles which any person in reasonable health could achieve. Instead of the above, if Halima returned home in embarrassment, she'd have to revamp her ideas about the nature of souls and that 'The Universe' could manifest at will, regardless of human preconceptions. In essence, that would have been Cleon's greatest victory, both politically and from a ecumenical p.o.v. Did the writers even conceive of that? I would doubt it.

"If it has to be explained to you, you're not capable of understanding it." Yes, that was sort of my point. I'm well aware that Asimov's Salvor Hardin was no fan of violence, but I already explained why I think there is a justification for Salvor Hardin in the series being quite different from Salvor Hardin in the book. As for compelling dialogue, I think the scene of Salvor's interview with the Grand Huntress of Anacreon is brilliant from start to finish. I like the funny introduction: "I can't tell if she's lying or if she's just not telling the truth." "Is there a difference?" I especially like when Salvor starts guessing about her past, and she begins with quite reasonable educated guesses, and then there's that point when she can tell exactly what her mother died of. And I like how it ends as well.

I love the books, and I also love the show. I love all of Asimov's books and I'm not afraid to knock him off his pedestal. His first Foundation book especially is little more than a skeleton. There is a 50 year gap between "The Psychohistorians" and "The Encyclopedists". What do y'all think happened in 50 years?? A hell of a lot. That's why it took 4 episodes to portray it on the show. Then another 30 or so years till the next chapter, "The Mayors". Oh, and the conflict with Anacreon? The 'Encyclopedists" chapter ends with Terminus quivering in terror of Anacreon and waiting to watch Seldon's Time Vault message. THEN there is a gap of How many years?? The next scene we see, is Mayor Salvor Hardin talking with a bunch of politicians about things that have already happened: Hardin engineered a coup, gave nuclear tech to the kingdoms of the Periphery, and established a religion & priesthood to keep all of this tech under control of the "Holy Foundation". Excuse me, but what kind of novel skips over the most dramatic action so it can 'recap' it later? No kind. Only a serialized collection of pulp stories that probly appeared over months in the early 50s, which is what the first book Foundation really is. What I'm saying is, thank you Apple TV and Goyer for making this into a Real Story with characters, action, drama etc. If this series were a faithful rendition of the book, critics would be howling to the sky.

Asimov’s family cashed out.

I wholly agree. That speech last night oozed hatred for all that disagreed with the speaker. It’s intent wasn’t to bring people together or heal, its purpose was to divide. And the 1939 link was spot on: the lighting, the staging, the camera angles, the timed clenched fists and podium pounding suggested his team carefully studied game film from 1939.

I find faithfulness to the book a moot point. I have only heard positive things about the Empire story, including from die hard book fans, and that is made up stuff. You yourself say you wish it was more faithful yet you liked Cleon's story.

Shades of “Luke, I am your father!”

Hey, give the 12 year old some credit. I believe he's inspired by Ms Havisham from Dicken's 'Great Expectations' (the traumatized bride, but dead instead of living like a ghost wearing the same wedding gown for decades), and add in some 'Game of Thrones' skullduggery to make it into a plot device.

Remember, although Asimov was well ahead of his time and introduced many of the accepted Science fiction concepts, including being the recognised “father of robotics”, these stories were written in the 1940’s. Don’t forget the typewriters that you dictate to .. at the very least I was expecting these science fiction/science fact misnomers to be sorted out but, at the same time, this is where I was expecting the writers to embellish the old facts and figures with modern science fiction imagination.