They were distant nothings. Of course, they affected Trantor and were affected by Trantor, but these were second-order effects. If I could make psychohistory work as a first approximation for Trantor alone, then the minor effects of the Outer Worlds could be added as later modifications. Do you see what I mean? I was searching for a single world on which to establish a practical science of psychohistory and I was searching for it in the far past, when all the time the single world I wanted was under my feet now."
Hummin said with obvious relief and pleasure, "Wonderful!"
"But its all left to do, Hummin. I must study Trantor in sufficient detail. I must devise the necessary mathematics to deal with it. If I am lucky and live out a full lifetime, I may have the answers before I die. If not, my successors will have to follow me. Conceivably, the Empire may have fallen and splintered before psychohistory becomes a useful technique."
"I will do everything I can to help you."
"I know it," said Seldon.
"You trust me, then, despite the fact I am Demerzel?"
"Entirely. Absolutely. But I do so because you are not Demerzel."
"But I am," insisted Hummin.
"But you are not. Your persona as Demerzel is as far removed from the truth as is your persona as Hummin."
"What do you mean?" Hummins eyes grew wide and he backed away slightly from Seldon.
"I mean that you probably chose the name Hummin out of a wry sense of what was fitting. Hummin is a mispronunciation of human, isnt it?" Hummin made no response. He continued to stare at Seldon.
And finally Seldon said, "Because youre not human, are you, Hummin/Demerzel? Youre a robot."
Dors
SELDON, HARI-- ... it is customary to think of Hari Seldon only in connection with psychohistory, to see him only as mathematics and social change personified. There is no doubt that he himself encouraged this for at no time in his formal writings did he give any hint as to how he came to solve the various problems of psychohistory. His leaps of thought might have all been plucked from air, for all he tells us. Nor does he tell us of the blind alleys into which he crept or the wrong turnings he may have made. ...
As for his private life, it is a blank. Concerning his parents and siblings, we know a handful of factors, no more. His only son, Raych Seldon, is known to have been adopted, but how that came about is not known. Concerning his wife, we only know that she existed. Clearly, Seldon wanted to be a cipher except where psychohistory was concerned. It is as though he felt--or wanted it to be felt--that he did not live, he merely psychohistorified.
ENCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA
91.
Hummin sat calmly, not a muscle twitching, still looking at Hari Seldon and Seldon, for his part, waited. It was Hummin, he thought, who should speak next.
Hummin did, but said merely, "A robot? Me?--By robot, I presume you mean an artificial being such as the object you saw in the Sacratorium in Mycogen."
"Not quite like that," said Seldon.
"Not metal? Not burnished? Not a lifeless simulacrum?" Hummin said it without any evidence of amusement.
"No. To be of artificial life is not necessarily to be made of metal. I speak of a robot indistinguishable from a human being in appearance.. "If indistinguishable, Hari, then how do you distinguish?"
"Not by appearance."
"Explain."
"Hummin, in the course of my flight from yourself as Demerzel, I heard of two ancient worlds, as I told you--Aurora and Earth. Each seemed to be spoken of as a first world or an only world. In both cases, robots were spoken of, but with a difference."
Seldon was staring thoughtfully at the man across the table, wondering if, in any way, he would give some sign that he was less than a man--or more. He said, "Where Aurora was in question, one robot was spoken of as a renegade, a traitor, someone who deserted the cause. Where Earth was in question, one robot was spoken of as a hero, one who represented salvation. Was it too much to suppose that it was the same robot?"
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