"Asimov, Isaac - Cleon the Emperor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

УWho's Sisyphus?Ф

УA character in a primitive myth. Amaryl, you must do more reading.Ф

Amaryl shrugged. УSo I can learn about Sisyphus? Not important. Perhaps Psychohistory will show us a path to an entirely new society, one altogether different from anything we have seen, one that would be stable and desirable.Ф

УI hope so,Ф sighed Seldon. УI hope so, but there's no sign of it yet. For the near future, we will just have to labor to let the Periphery go. That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.Ф


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4.

УAnd so I said,Ф said Hari Seldon. УThat will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire. And so it will, Dors.Ф

Dors listened, tight-lipped. She accepted Seldon's First Ministership as she accepted everythingЧcalmly. Her only mission was to protect him and his Psychohistory, but that task, she well knew, was made harder by his position. The best security was to go unnoticed and as long as the sun of office shone down upon Seldon, not all the physical barriers in existence would be satisfactory, or sufficient.

The luxury in which they now lived; the careful shielding from spy-beams, as well as from physical interference; the advantages to her own historical research of being able to make use of nearly unlimited funds, did not satisfy her. She would gladly have exchanged it all for their old quarters at Streeling University. Or better yet, for a nameless apartment in a nameless sector where no one knew them.

УThat's all very well, Hari dear,Ф she said, Уbut it's not enough.Ф

УWhat's not enough?Ф

УThe information you're giving me. You say we might lose the Periphery. How? Why?Ф

Seldon smiled briefly. УHow nice it would be to know, Dors, but Psychohistory is not yet at the stage where it could tell us.Ф

УIn your opinion, then. Is it the ambition of local, faraway governors to declare themselves independent?Ф

УThat's a factor, certainly. It's happened in past history, as you know better than I, but never for long. Maybe this time, it will be permanent.Ф

УBecause the Empire is weaker?Ф

УYes, because trade flows less freely than it once did, because communications are stiffer than they once were, because the governors in the Periphery are, in actual fact, closer to independence than they have ever been. If one of them arises with particular ambitionsЧФ

УCan you tell which one it might be?Ф

УNot in the least. All we can force out of Psychohistory at this stage is the definite knowledge that if a governor of unusual ability and ambition arises, he would find conditions more suitable for his purposes than he would have in the past. It could be other things, too, some great natural disaster, or sudden civil war between two distant world coalitions. None of that can be precisely predicted as of now, but we can tell that anything of the sort that happens will have more serious consequences than it would have had a century ago.Ф

УBut if you don't know a little more precisely what will happen in the Periphery, how can you so guide actions as to make sure the Periphery goes, rather than Trantor?Ф

УBy keeping a close eye on both and trying to stabilize Trantor and not trying to stabilize the Periphery. We can't expect Psychohistory to order events automatically without much greater knowledge of its workings, so we have to make use of constant manual controls, so to speak. In days to come, the technique will be refined and the need for manual control will decrease.Ф

УBut that,Ф said Dors, Уis in days to come. Right?Ф

УRight. And even that is only a hope.Ф

УAnd just what kind of instabilities threaten Trantor, if we hang on to the Periphery?Ф