Earth / Gaia

The hypothetical place of origin of humanity and the carbon-based creatures from which humanity evolves in pre-hyperspatial times, Earth and its sun no longer appear in any computer databank, even in the Galactic Library on Trantor. The "Origins Question" is the unfashionable study of that lost world. The "Sirius Alternative" holds that Earth is in the Sirius Sector, the longest-populated region of the Milky Way Galaxy. Some hold that Gaia is Earth's name in a different, lost, Earth language. Others subscribe to the myth that Gaia has been banished into hyperspace for bad behavior. Protagonist Golan Trevize and his scholarly companion, Professor Janov Pelorat, fly to Gaia, and are told of its settlement by the few humans who do not resent having been taught by robots. Over millennia, Gaians develop the craft of sharing minds and work to bring the First and Second Foundations together to...