Earth

Earth, sometimes called Old Earth, Gaia or Terra, is a planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. It is the most common setting of his Robot short stories.

Description[]

Earth is the planet upon which humans have lived for longer than anyone remembers. Earth features in one of several Origin Myths found throughout the Galactic Empire. Its history, however is shrouded in the mists of time.

Earth was the third planet from its sun (called Sol) and had one large moon (Luna).

History[]

From millions of years BCE to the early Galactic Era, Earth was one of the most important planets in the galaxy, if not the most, being one of only a few planets to have ever developed life without having been first colonized by other worlds, as well as being the origin planet of the human race, which would go on to dominate the galaxy through the Galactic Empire. Around 65,000,000 BCE, the dinosaurs, the original dominant race of Earth, were killed by a race of small intelligent lizards armed with guns, which either left Earth or died out. Eventually humans evolved on the planet.

Up until the 20th century CE, the human race progressed, having wars and developing technology, experiencing the ups and downs of civilization, but nothing extremely radical happened, and, most importantly, no one made an attempt to leave Earth and colonize new worlds. In the early 20th century, two world wars were endured, WW1 in the 1910s and WW2 in the 1940s. Eventually, in 1973, the human race reached for the moon. The Prometheus failed, but, after some complicated series of events, the New Prometheus reached the moon in 1978, achieving the goal of leaving Earth, if only slightly.

From around 1979 to 1982, WW3 took place, ending nationalism, and splitting Earth into Regions. From there, the planet experienced a new renaissance, developing positronic brains in the 1980s and 1990s, governed by the Three Laws of Robotics. One of the most important early pioneers in robotics was Susan Calvin (1982-2064), who was the first and chief robopsychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men from 2007 to 2058. Robots eventually grew very advanced.

In 2065, Earth colonized the first extrasolar world, Aurora, the World of the Dawn. This was the first of the great Spacer Worlds, which were colonized over thousands of years across the stars. Around 3720, they rebelled against Earth, winning the Three-Week War, and would become higher in society than Earth. In 4724, detective Elijah Baley managed to allow the colonization of new worlds by Earth, which had been suppressed, and the Settler worlds were made. These were threatened in 4922 but were saved due to the efforts of Gladia Solaria, R. Daneel Olivaw, and R. Giskard Reventlov, at the cost of Earth being made radioactive by Levular Mandamus.

Eventually, the Settler worlds spread across the galaxy, outnumbering the Spacer worlds greatly, and Earth sank into insignificance, but it was still known and not looked upon unfavorably.

1,000 years into the radioactivity, it was believed to be the result of a nuclear war.

Thousands of years later, in the year 500 of the Foundation Era, Daneel Olivaw was on the Moon of Earth and encountered Golan Trevize.

Earth

Contents

Description[]

History[]

Appearances[]

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