Breaking The UStatus Quo: Between Elon Musk's Terminus and Lex Fridman's Empire Romanus

It all started with an X “kiss” that turned out to be a bliss between Lex Fridman and Elon Musk.

Just a few days after an interview with Donald Trump, Lex Fridman made an announcement about the Roman Empire “deep dive” episode:

So, a thousand years of history, give it or take, are going to be “compressed” into a single podcast episode (no plural in the original tweet?!). I don’t even have to bother to look up, but there are entire podcasts and YouTube channels dedicated exclusively to the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. What can I say, good luck with that.

Guess whose reply was the first to pop up?

The good news was that Elon Musk specifically mentioned the book(s), not the series “Foundation.” What Amazon did with “The Rings of Power” was blasphemy to any Tolkien fan. “Foundation” was a mission impossible. So, kudos for that worth-a-try.

Now, let’s get down to the business of unpacking, explaining, and comparing.

A Brief History of Asimov’s “Foundation,” Roman, and Mars Empires

The “epidemy” of comparisons between the Roman Empire and the USA may seem like the new thing, but that’s not the case. Back as early as 1961, Mason Hammond published “Ancient Rome and Modern America Reconsidered.” Compared to the contemporary analyses that are cherry-picking the fall-oriented parts by wannabe YouTube historians, economy, and policy analysts, Mr. Hammond did some serious unbiased work.

When you see only what you want to see, then you leave out some undeniable historical facts. When you turn the whole story about the fall of Rome into a scarecrow, then you conveniently “forget” to mention that this fall is not the “Endgame” in Marvel’s terms, but actually the rise of the Roman Empire. Where and when the Roman Republic ends, the Roman Empire begins. The last time I checked, the land of the free and the home of the brave was still a republic.

When the sh*t hits the fan, it doesn’t take a lot of convincing that decentralized governance and less bureaucracy are nice to have and do. We all feel it instinctively. Unfortunately, it’s also in our nature to look for a savior.

During the time when the Roman Republic was going through an unprecedented series of crises, there was a guy who had a thing for red. Now, any veteran fellow can confirm and explain that the very first thing military commanders do on a battlefield is to “blend in.”

You don’t stick out because epaulets are the first on the most wanted list for your enemies. You move and act as a regular soldier or you become a sniper’s trophy. There were exceptions, of course.

Just when all seemed lost, a familiar figure rode into the breach and led the counter-attack. Caesar, calling on his centurions by name and wearing a conspicuous red cloak, rallied his forces, and seeing their commander in danger, the Romans redoubled their efforts and threw off the attackers.

So, if you’re going to talk about Ancient Rome and Modern America, you have to bring Caesar this way or another into the story, just like The Time in this article: The U.S. Faces the Same Risks Ancient Rome Faced in Caesar’s Day

Am I implying that there’s a US Presidential Candidate who’s being compared to Caesar? Let me talk about “Foundation” for a change, so you can have a better understanding of Elon’s tweet in case you haven’t read the book(s).

What Is Elon Musk Not Telling You About “Foundation?”

Once upon a time, there was the fictional Galactic Empire that was about to go through 30K sh*tty years. That’s a long time, so one scientist came up with a solution thanks to something called psychohistory which would shorten this period to “only” a thousand years. A bunch of clever guys who called themselves "Encyclopedists" gathered all human knowledge and gave it a cheesy name - Encyclopedia Galactica.

They had to hide on an isolated planet - Terminus. That’s a rather ominous name for a city on Mars, Mr. Musk, but what do I know?! My memory doesn’t serve me right at the moment, how long did it take to make this Galactic Encyclopedia and exactly how, but nowadays, we all know that AI could come in handy.

But, this scientist was very clever, that’s why he created another (alternative) foundation in secret. Hmm, it smells like teen spirit and good old decentralization, doesn’t it?

And, that’s about it. What follows is a conflict between the First Foundation and Galactic Empire; eventually between the First (original) and the Second (secret) Foundations. If you’re asking me, Isaac Asimov got a nice multi-book deal, so the original “Foundation” concept got a bit lost in translation in prequels and sequels.

In a nutshell, it’s either technocracy or Dark Ages 2.0. Again, if you’re asking me, it’s not much of a choice, but ignore my voice.

Knowledge Is Power, But Collective Memory Is Superpower

Look, “Foundation” is a masterpiece, a deep dive into Ancient Rome history is useful, and building cities on Mars is exciting, but not (re)watching the movie Idiocracy (2006) is a crime against humanity. Why?

Rebooting the System, any system, from time to time, is a good (refreshing) thing. But, there’s a catch. It has to be done properly. I’m not a developer, and my biggest tech achievement in life is learning how to install and use Linux Ubuntu. If during the rebooting process, some of the memory is lost, you’re f*cked.

If we are to break ties with the current status quo and start all over (hopefully peacefully - radiation-free), it would be good to have some knowledge about who we were, what we could do, and especially what we shouldn’t do again, saved. All the knowledge in the world, including “Galactica Britannica" would be useless without a reliable, efficient, and unbiased system to pass it on to the next generations.

It’s no coincidence that “Planet of the Apes” movies took so many references and inspiration from Ancient Rome: Ceasar and Proximus to begin with. Lex Fridman just stated the obvious that history puts everything in perspective. Unfortunately, history tends to repeat itself. Ipsa Historia Repetit - that’s the same thing in Latin, which is considered to be a dead language. So, even the Romans themselves understood and valued knowledge and the ways to preserve and pass it on.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? The Romans also asked: Who will guard the guards (“Encyclopedists”) themselves?

To wrap it up, here’s a funny meme and a serious quote:

What one believes in this matter all really boils down to whether or not one has faith in authority. If one does, one is likely to believe what we are being fed, and the news that gets filtered through to us. If one doesn’t, then one is far more likely to be questioning things. ― Mango Wodzak, Topsy-Turvy World - Vegan Anarchy