Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of develop… - Isaac Asimov

All that had been done in the mid-twentieth century on “calculating machines” had been upset by Robertson and his positronic brain-paths. The miles of relays and photocells had given way to the spongy globe of plantinumiridium about the size of a human brain.

Trantor becomes more specialized, it becomes more vulnerable, less able to defend itself. Further, as it becomes more and more the administrative centre of Empire, it becomes a greater prize. As the Imperial succession becomes more and more uncertain, and the feuds among the great families more rampant, social responsibility disappears.

I’m being accused of modesty, a horrible and thoroughly unnatural crime.