“Searching all logical possibilities, one solution beckoned. Why not breed a version of humanity that would synergize better with positronic robots? A variant that could use us-and perhaps even know of our existence-without going mad in the process.”

Daneel probed Zun’s internal state and perceived that his understudy was experiencing dismay at many levels.

“Don’t be so shocked, Zun. Access the bio files. chimpanzee DNA differs by only two percentum from human. Tweak just a hundred or so regulatory genes, and you’ll get a sapient being looking almost exactly like a person. It willbe a person, triggering all of the Laws of Robotics. I merely sought to find out if this new race would be easier to serve than the old one. If so, it would have been a gentle transition, a blending, arranged to take place without anyone noticing, over the course of-”

Zun interrupted.

“Daneel, are you aware how this rationalization skirts the edge of madness~”

The remark might have angered a human leader. But Daneel took no offense. In fact, it pleased him. Zun had just passed another test.

“As I said, this happened in a context of desperation. Chaos plagues had resumed, worse then ever. Millions of humans were dying in riotous upheavals. All the social dampers showed early signs of breaking down. Something had to be done.

“Fortunately, I turned away from the replacement idea when a better possibility presented itself.”

“Psychohistory,” Zun ventured.

“Indeed. We robots already had a version, dating from my early conversations with Giskard, on lamented Earth. Those social models sufficed to help set up the First Empire, and results were positive. Over ten thousand years of general peace and contentment, without much violence or repression, in a relatively gentle civilization. It kept stable for an entire glorious age…until my models started to unravel.

“Gradually I realized a new theory was needed. One that took psychohistory to new levels. My own mind, even enhanced as it is, was inadequate to make that step. I needed a genius. An inspired human genius.”

“But human genius is part of the problem!”

“Truly. Across the galaxy, it perpetually threatens to create chaos. Imagine what might happen if positronic robots were reinvented, willy-nilly, on countless worlds! The Solarian heresy would be unleashed again, a million times worse. We could not let that happen.”

“So special conditions were needed, to recruit a singular genius. I’ve studied how you carefully crafted the right circumstances, on Helicon.”

“And it worked. The moment I met Hari Seldon, I knew we had turned a corner.”

Zun pondered, before continuing with another question.

“Then Lodovic is wrong. You did not arrange for Dors and Hari to have their near-death adventure, in chimp bodies, forty years ago.”

“Oh, to the contrary. I did exactly that!

“Of course, I would never let them come to real harm. But I had to be sure of Hari before letting a man of his insight take over as First Minister of the Empire. Such confidence could only be confirmed by observing his mind under stress. He passed the trial, of course, and went on to brilliance at both statecraft and mathematics. Final proof came with his wonderful new version of psychohistory.”

“And the Seldon Plan.”

Daneel nodded.

“Because of the Plan, we can proceed at all levels. The two Foundations will buy us time to prepare areal solution. One that will finally liberate human beings and bring joy to the cosmos.”

“You aren’t talking anymore about replacing humanity.”

“Not in the same sense as when I considered the pan scenario! I was experiencing a minor breakdown at that point, and regret ever contemplating it. No, I’m referring to something much better, enabling humanity to rise up and become something far greater.”

Daneel turned back toward the galactic wheel.

“The new endeavor is already under way. You and Dors have been laboring toward it for some time, without perceiving the big picture.”

“But you will explain it to me now?”

Daneel nodded.

“Soon you will share the wonder of this new destiny. Something so awesome and beautiful that it is almost beyond contemplating.”

He paused again while his assistant waited patiently. But when Daneel spoke again, it was not as much to Zun as thegalaxy that he saw reflected on the frozen metal lake.

“We shall offer our masters a wonderful gift,” he said, relishing the warm possibility of hope after so long a time without it.

The starscape gradually grew less crowded each time they took another hyperspatial jump away from Trantor, leaving behind the galactic center’s dense glitter and following the dusty curve of a spiral arm. Leaping from one gravitational landmark to the next, the starship headed for Santanni, where their search would begin.

Hari insisted on that starting point. This inquiry might as well start near the planet where Raych died, especially if there turned out to be some relationship between chaos worlds and Horis Antic’s geospace aberrations.

Tragic memories crossed the years. Not just of Santanni, but dozens of other chaos outbreaks.

It often commences with bright hope and bursts of amazing creativity, attracting clever immigrants from allover the galaxy…as Raych was attracted, at first, despite my misgivings.

Excitement and individualism flower from town to town, bringing a wild divergence of never-before-seen blooms.“Innovation” abruptly becomes a compliment, not an insult. Novel technologies stimulate predictions of utopia, just around the bend.

But soon trouble starts. Some untested breakthroughs implode. Others wreak unforeseen consequences that their creators never imagined. Diseases spread alongside unprecedented perversions, while each new style of deviance is defended with indignant righteousness. Cliques proclaim the right to fortify their independence with violence, along with a duty to suppress others they disapprove of

Venerable networks of courtesy and obligation-meant to bind the five castes in mutual respect-shatter like irradiated stone.

Bizarre new artworks, intentionally provocative, erupt spontaneously in the middle of downtown intersections, gesturing obscenely even as the shouting artists are carried off by lynch mobs. Cities start to fill with soot and flames. Rioters sack the hard work of centuries, screaming slogans for ephemeral causes no one will remember when the smoke clears.

Trade collapses. Economies slump. And citizens rediscover an ancient knack for bloody war.

People who recently derided the past suddenly begin longing for it again, as their children start to starve.

It was a familiar pattern. Civilization’s mortal enemy, which Hari had battled as First Minister…and Daneel Olivaw strove against for over a dozen millennia.

Chaosism. Humanity’s curse.

As soon as a culture grows too smart, too curious, too individualistic, this mysterious rot sets in. I can model it in my equations, but I confess I still don’t understand chaos. Only that it terrifies me, and always has.

Hari recalled reading about the very first awful outbreak inA Child’s Book of Knowledge- Daneel’sgift archive from the deep past. It happened at a time when humanity first invented both robots and starflight-and nearly died of them both. The ensuing convulsions so traumatized Earth dwellers that they retreated from all challenges, huddling in Trantorlike metal cities. Meanwhile, those living on the Spacer colony worlds found their own style of insanity, becoming pathetically overdependent on android servants.

That era created Daneel Olivaw-or an early version of the mighty being Hari knew. In fact, his robot friend must have played a role in what happened next, a swing of the pendulum back to human confidence and colonization of the galaxy. It happened at a price, though. Near destruction of Earth.