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Page 196
So Asimov returned the reader to the Foundation universe of the 1940s, but he returned with a greater conviction about the importance of accurate science and of public understanding of science, and of the importance of ecology. Gaia, for instance, is ecology carried to the ultimate degree of self-awareness; it is ecology personified.
More important, Foundation's Edge altered the message of the Trilogy the message that rationality is the only human trait that can be trusted and that it will, if permitted to do so, come up with the correct solution. That message is embodied not only in Seldon's psychohistory but in the actions of the men and women who work to preserve the First and Second Foundations and Seldon's Plan, and even those who try to destroy them. In the new novel, however, Asimov allowed to creep in (or pushed in) a significant element of mysticism. Mysticism is present in Gaia, the planet that acts as a gigantic mind made up of variously sentient parts (although an explanation is proposed that the robots perhaps going back to the unfortunate Herbie of "Liar!" have perfected telepathy and are continuing their guardianship of humanity, as in "The Evitable Conflict"), and mysticism is evident in Trevise's grasp on correctness when he is "sure" he is always right, like Paul in D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner."
Hari Seldon and his rational psychohistory are accordingly de-emphasized. Even though Seldon's thousand-year Plan is preserved as Trevise chooses the status quo and even though Gaia (which is the mysterious force both Trevise and Gendibal have suspected) has acted to restore Seldon's Plan after the disturbances caused by the Mule (who is revealed, a bit unconvincingly, as a Gaian renegade), the Plan seems inconsequential when compared to the Gaian vision of "Galaxia! Every inhabited 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 cannot foresee. . . ." It is a concept to rival that of Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker, but it is transcendence reached by faith rather than by reason.
What could have led Asimov to what seems like a change of heart after a life dedicated to the rational pursuit of the right thing to do? Perhaps it is pushing the facts beyond a reasonable doubt to suggest that Asimov may have seen himself as Trevise, the man who has always been right, but Asimov was popularly perceived as a repository of not only facts but wisdom, and his opinions and recommendations were sought after and paid for. He dedicated himself to the education of the masses through numerable (he numbered them himself) books and innumerable articles. Nevertheless, as he looked around him, he must

 
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