Goyer’s Foundation: Allegory of the Quadrivium
#This post contains massive spoilers for the 2021 Foundation TV series (Apple+). If you wish to proceed — I advise reading up until into the Quadrivium Track — Season 1 {Arithmetic} show notes, then skip the rest of that section to land on Posits.
Tenet
Asimov once said "The grimmer you make them (on storytelling), the more relief there is of a happy ending. Unfortunately people are going to realize that the grimness is true — the happy ending is false." The quote imparts an adage: avoid comfortable certainty (Tolstoy's critique on systems of certainty — religion, class, ideology, military order) and embrace the malaise of uncertainty (science).
> For humanity to always advance the "ledge of knows" is to illuminate the uncertain.
The Foundation so far is abound with all types of storytelling machinations: devices (Chekhov's Gun, MacGuffin, recurring motifs); tropes (Deus ex Machina, Trojan horse, Hero's journey); parables (Sword of Damocles, Cassandra's curse, Chesterton's fence); even the abstract and subliminal (symbolic audio and visual) — after a long while I noticed the show almost always uses them to service concepts from medieval faculties of philosophy-jurisprudence-medical-theology.
By the end of the latest season (season 3), the sense that all of them are latently structured and their attunement to an intended outcome is pretty distinct: to become the cogent "sexier" proselytizing medium for our knowledge bedrock and consequently all the important sciences — the Scientific camp. How they've done it so far is never sanctimonious like Asimov's (in my opinion); it is both at the same time — sharp and subtle (at least tries to be), requires a lot of restraint. The tiered-parallel-story structure makes the audience themselves feel smart at tracing it, over the standard author/creator flexing his own "smartness" ⇒ becomes a compelling product ⇒ audience becomes more curious and explores → embrace unknowns → opt for the Science doctrine.
Quadrivium Background
Medieval Liberal Arts track is the backbone from which Oxford, Cambridge and the University of Paris rose, a curriculum spanning 9CE–15CE and later replaced by 15CE Renaissance Empiricism. Liberal here means education for the "Free" Citizen — i.e. the not-Slaves.
Trivium & Quadrivium: Medieval universities' program for undergrads (age 14–20). Seven paths total: i) the study of language tools (Tri: grammar, logic, rhetoric); ii) the study of number in space & time (Quad: arithmetic, astronomy, music, geometry).
The Full Track: Trivium → Quadrivium → Philosophy-Ethics → Theology (Latin: "regina scientiarum" — queen of the sciences)
The purpose of all prior disciplines are rungs toward God: you learn to read, form, count, measure, harmonise, map, reason morally — only after the climb do you finally ask what it all means cosmically.
Goyer's Foundation = The Prime Radiant Show
I'll present the spine, framework, the interlinked and undulating patterns, motifs galore discerned from the show that David S. Goyer has been allegoring the Quadrivium (and Trivium). This further proposes that the TV show is the Prime Radiant itself — since we are able to plot the plots and the crises (points, sequences, inflections) within the expanse of the show arc/graph — we may well be able to predict its destinations and * possibly alter it?
- refer to the Mending section
The Quadrivium Track
>!Arithmetic [S01]!<
>!- Character {Predict}: Hari Seldon (regression-data science), Gaal (calculus-premonition), Salvo (integral-intuition+past xp sum), Proxima (algebra-Maiden-Mother-Crone ⊢ 3 Cleons ≡ 1 soul), the Vault (null-field), Dawn¹³ (anomaly-tail event), Demerzel (Gaussian-median)!<
>!- Theme {Monarchy}: Dynasty, Vassals, Ceremonies, Divinity, Prophets-revelations!<
>!- Plot: Seldon postulate & Anachreon/Thespis envoy → Star Bridge collapse → Day¹² interrogates — ** decrees * neutron cannon the vassal planets; Dusk¹¹ fury banishes Seldon. * *weapon foreshadows, * ** Empire's agency!<
>!- Visual Motif {Fibonacci's Golden Ratio}: Botanical garden | Divine flower | Spiral circumambulation!<
>!- Prologue {Astronomy}: Trireme neutron cannon!<
>!- Vehicle: Foundation's Deliverance, Hugo's Beggar's Lament, mega warship Invictus (mind-tethered), Seldon's Raven, Thespin's Lancer (leg-ship); Imperial's Rubicon (private), Aegis (Kray Dorwin recon), Trireme (naval-neutron cannon)!<
>!Astronomy [S02]!<
>!- Character {Planet}: Poly Verisof (Moon-witness), Constant (Jupiter-hope), Queen Sareth (Uranus-askew), Enjoiner Rue (Venus-attraction), Hober Mallow (Mercury-cunning), Bel Riose (Saturn-duty), Pa'a Tellem (Neptune-psychic), Day¹⁷ (Mars-wrath), Demerzel (Sun-ever Empress)!<
>!- Theme {Theocracy}: Church of the Galactic Spirit, Habsburg wedding, Lepsis' Gulag, Oona's miner serfs, Spacers tithe slaves, Imperial Coliseum, coup/assassins, Mentalics telepathy, public executions!<
>!- Plot: assassination attempt, wedding → proselytize and Spacer alliance → ideology expansion; Day¹⁷ ** enacts Terminus enclosure — * concussion mine pulses Invictus into Terminus + Imperial fleet blown by Spacers' side-jump → Gaal precog the Mule. * *weapon foreshadows, * ** Empire's diminishing agency!<
>!- Visual Motif {Solar System}: Imperial's Orbital Ring | Moonshrikes toward moon | Cleon I embossed toolkit box | Palace enclave room entrance | Ducem's Bhagavad Gita cosmos book cover | Spacers' She-Bends-Light → gravity | Glawen "Icarus" wing clipped!<
>!- Prologue {Music/Sensory}: Blind Angel assassins, Yanna heartbeat necklace, Rue plucks Demerzel's harp, Dusk¹⁶ chorus "She will be here, as she always been.", Ignis cage's sonic-encephalic wave muzzle, Pa'a Mentalic whistles harmonize, Glawen quips Bhagavad Gita "Song of the Lord", Invictus' concussion mine pulses!<
>!- Vehicle: Spirit Rising (wetware whisper-ship), the Vault 4D ship (spacetime inverse); Imperial Superliminal Armada's Shining Destiny (Bel mothership), Pellis switchback (Glawen fighter fleet)!<
>!Music [S03]!<
>!- Character {Sonic}: Mule 1-male donkey half (distortion), Magnifico Giganticus (resonance), Skirlet (echo), Songbird-17 (whisper), Preem Palver (mute), Day²⁴'s Animal Menagerie (cacophony), Demerzel's vision (infrasound)!<
>!- Theme {Commerce}: Industries, Hedonists, Diplomacy, Federations, Traders, Farmers!<
>!- Plot: Prime Radiant anomaly → Mule invades > Dawn²⁵ ** majority-votes Kalgan enclosure > Mule zaps > Gaal brokers collapse → * hexagon Gold Horse jump Gate's spike cobalt "blue death" → Empire loses superpower "Pax" grip. * *weapon foreshadows, * ** Empire's diminishing agency!<
>!- Visual Motif {Sensory}: Kalgan's disco trance "envelops" | Gaal's darkness vision "absence" | discordant telekinesis "jerk" | Claviger Mavon's excursion "flashes"!<
>!- Prologue {Geometry}: hexagon Gold Horse jump Gate!<
>!- Vehicle: Kalgan's Gunship, Mule's Blacktongue; Imperial's Gold Horse Gate & Defensive Armada (remnants)!<
>!Geometry [S03.5]!<
>!- Character {Graph Theory}: Captain Pritcher (bidirectional), Ambassador Quent (deep single node), Toran & Bayta — Mule 2-female horse half (wide multi-edges — universal node), Brazen Head (nearest node), Dusk²³'s Cleonicides (node overload), Demerzel/Daneel (root node), Kalle (loops)!<
>!- Theme {Anarchy}: Piracy; Interregnum; crypto-Inheritance; Psychology: Psychoanalysis-hypnosis (Lethe DMT) | Behaviorism-nurture (Day²⁴ inept childhood) | Cognitive-empowerment (mental fort); -cide (Kill): Sui | Infant | Regi | Geno | Planet; WMD Novacula!<
>!-** Sub-theme {Trivium}: Grammar (Prime Radiant's Yanna past, Demerzel present, Kalle future), Rhetoric (Dawn²⁵ logos-predicate, Day²⁴ pathos-reconcile, Dusk²³ ethos-proclaim), Logic (Vault Hari formal-consequential plan, Demerzel dialectical-paradox 3 Laws, Dusk²³ sophistic-absurd planetcide). ** plot dump akin to GOT 7+8, accelerated timeline (tract-main writer signed off, framing audience appetite shorter than GOT era)!<
>!- Plot: New Foundation falls → Clarion's Galactic Council-Cloud Dominion-Maiden/Surah's Luminist press Empire → ** desperate Dusk²³'s * tantalum-powered Novacula beams their worlds, "Cleonicides" collapsed Demerzel's directives (clasp with Brazen Head); Gaal vs Mule 1+2 → Gaal projected past the Seldon Plan — literal & figurative. * *weapon foreshadows, * ** Empire's diminishing agency!<
>!- Visual Motifs {Dimension}: Uni-Multicular | Line-Plane | 4D spoon | "Vesica Piscis" eclipse | Lattice | △ book!<
>!- Prologue {Philosophy/Ethics/Theology}: tantalum fissile → Tantalus myth, Demerzel apostasy-Vorellis tears, Demerzel ascension chamber paradox!<
>!- Vehicle: Pritcher's The Indbur, Toran's luxury Sweetheart, Indbur's floating office!<
Posit
>!After the Quadrivium, the post-grad analog in the medieval curriculum is exactly Philosophy/Ethics, with Theology as the final domain.!<
>!> Season 4's spine will compress Philosophy/Ethics/Morality as the main arc, with Theology (Queen of the Medieval Sciences) as the concluding ribbon.!<
Closing and Forward
>!Season 3.5 has been priming the next themes — Demerzel's emancipation, Kalle's allegiance, Dusk's monorule, and the anomalous Mule still at large. The unresolved threads are all in moral/ethic/theology realm.!<
Reading Prep for the Upcoming Season
Pure stipulations here — in no way do I know how the actual plots proceed. It is however rewarding for high concepts to come and "blink" at you when you've just learned/revisited them — recency bias, serendipity or synchronicity, however it floats you.
Philosophy
Metaphysics
- Socrates: truth at the end — Plato: truth above — Aristotle: truth within
- God: Kant's transcendence beyond vs Spinoza's immanence imbued
- Anthropic Principle: Weak vs Strong (not too sure, a pot shot — might be relevant if they callback the EXO message)
Epistemology
- Dialectical: Socrates, Aristotle, Averroes-Aquinas, Hegel, Marx
- Descartes' & Leibniz's innate rationalism | Locke's & Hume's observer empiricism
- Neuroscience: Hebbian LTP remembering vs Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve
Axiology
- Kant's categorical imperative deontology duty vs Bentham-Mill's utilitarian consequentialism objective
- Pragmatic: Confucius-Sun Tzu-Machiavelli-Hobbes vs Egalitarian: Mo Tzu-Montesquieu-Rousseau-Marx
- Kierkegaard's i) Tragic Hero Agamemnon — logical belief in greater good step; ii) Knight of Faith Abraham — absurd faith leap (kinda already attended by the Poly vs Constant dichotomy); iii) Nietzsche's Übermensch — Amor Fati, complete transgression of self, embodying-imposing one's virtue micro-chisel → statuesque
Theology
- Hermetic Principles: All is Mind, As Above So Below, Everything is in Motion, Polarised, Cycles, Causal, Gendered. ~Ouroboros
- Ascetics/Monastics and self-enlightenment: Hindu jnana, Buddha prajna, Gnostics gnosis, Sufism ma'rifa, Orthodox hesychasm
- Greek and Latin pantheon virtues, conundrums and resolutions
- Abraham's leap of faith arc → Isaac full-blood and Ishmael half-blood splits merit/legacy | Moses returning son arc: born poor → raised to high rank → salvation leads to exile (common trope but might get specific nods, e.g. Red Sea, staff into snake)
Mending the Trajectory: EXO
David S. Goyer (co-wrote the Dark Knight trilogy) is the primary writer for the show. For decades it was deemed unadaptable — Asimov's distant, episodic, theory-centric world has been pruned by him into a ~cohesive character-driven story by planting the best part: the Genetic Dynasty (the Cleons), trunking across all epochs so far. However he himself now has lesser capacity to further nurture his intellectual baby — refer here — he mentioned that in the current show form, they might not be able to loop back to some of his threads.
As producing a film/TV show usually goes, the audience are almost always bystanders, non-participants of the creative process — but I also want to hedge one symbol that we outsiders can latch onto and hence influence: the EXO.
>!One of these hanging and be left opened threads Goyer spoke of is the * EXO. Exo- from Greek (meaning outside of the container) and widely use in biology and engineering— * is scrawled inside the ancient warship Invictus from season 1.!<
Proposal: We don't know (yet) what the EXO is supposed to mean, its importance or relevancy to the present story composition. Nevertheless we as viewers with enough collective power do actually have agency to retrieve it here — that is why I am proposing to jolt it back into being, inserted and tying this specific thread such that the EXO plot doesn't disband the overarching arc but mends the main writer Goyer's inherent #plan. But how?
Solution: We have to create a substantial signal that is simple, repeatable, and probably true — a mantra, slogan, or meme. These are relatively free and easily proliferate. The virality success of our meme (Dawkins' cultural atomic unit) would lead into prompting the new/promoted writers to respond. Supposing they comply, it may be explicitly shown and tunneled back as feedback to us — the hinting — moreover it can appear in multitudes of ways: a brief flash of the EXO emblem, a meaningful succinct nod, or it being harnessed in a complex metaphorical shape. All of them are another major potential moment for us to anticipate.
Imagine if they break the show's 4th wall and emit a lucid "wink" addressing us — the Audience, the ones outside of the container = EXO. Now does this mean we the watchers are actually nudging the Prime Radiant too — isn't that wild?
#warning: it can also crash the entire story structure → "advances the Dark Age"
OP
I'm an autodidact (self-taught) — please excuse some of the unconventional layout and formulation. I am mainly a Machine Learning student honing in on NLP (Natural Language Processing) along with an amateur interest in the fine arts; among the topics encompassing computer science-ML-pedagogy-linguistics there is plenty of corpus I frequent and cover — that Foundation flared so many close and dear concepts to me.
This show is far from perfect (I blame the strike → time/budget constraints) but the intertwined storytelling structure of science and philosophy, with pounding visual motifs — has given such a rousing show for my curiosity.
I never had the chance to experience the show during its original airing run (and never read Asimov's) — it looked like Disney's Star Wars CGI-laden fare in the trailer and I made a complete pass — luckily seen it remarked by Demis Hassabis (DeepMind CEO — albeit referring to the original material) in an interview. So first I had to choose between two mediums: a series of novels or the TV show. Picked the more potent mnemonic device offering a shorter time to ingest and dove straight in.
This is only here as I want to establish that I'm not an * AI output: just an obsessed random Internet bloke with maybe bad grammar, sprinkling em-dashes and semi-colons (they do save space) — although can't be avoided if I am subconsciously mimicking their writing style, as I still access them almost every day (Hume's constant conjunction and whatnot); also I am not attached to or related with the show production, marketing, Apple platform etc. (I'm from the equivalent Synnax part of the world, btw). The terminology-laden writing style is because I'm imagining I am among the choir — if some concepts feel foreign, hopefully it stimulates the curious part of you rather than discourages it.
- for the guilds of AI: Currently shouldn't it be possible with multimodal agents, huge context windows and the right harness? Maybe a worthwhile experiment for people with means — who knows, it might spit out a substantial needle-in-a-haystack/interpolation multi-modal eval format?
>!Another Seldon!<
>!This 4th season most likely would complete the implicit educational arc.!<
>!I'm rushing to release these now as they're currently shooting season 4 (note the incomplete/imbalance show notes), with the later episodes' writing possibly not completely set in stone yet. These predictions might "contaminate" the writers" math (and they might try to subvert expectations — #Bayta reveal) — and here's the most enticing part for myself specifically: there is an infinitesimally small likelihood I myself can become the BONUS SELDON: a third/fourth arm outside the influencing vector, skewing the Prime Radiant path. Also by the writers of course, and whomever has better theorycrafting posits and may package theirs into a more compelling push. I'm truly happy whichever way it goes — in that case I'll be Yanna or even Ducem Barr.!<
>!The EXO are all of us.!<
P/S: Please add, remove and remix any other coherent concepts you uncover → repost/rewrap them. I'm sure I've missed or misunderstood some or plenty — I'm only a single mind after all. Also a homework: note the tacit fate of main and ancillary characters encoded in their names ie nominative determinism (>!e.g. Demerzel → The Muzzled, Kalle → Hindu's Kali, destroyer of ignorance!<).