Text File

This file collects a chronology (and perhaps a few unrelated facts) of several inter-related series of books by Isaac Asimov. The portion starting on the next page is designed to be machine readable, but human comprehensible since initially data entry/editing will be done with GNU-Emacs.

This is the key for the layout:

Blank lines and comment lines starting with ";" are ignored.

There are 3 fields (delimeted by vertical bar ["|"]): 1) Date: As detailed as can be determined. Any portion of the date that is not exactly determined is followed with a twiddle ("~") and the max error. The date may be a span, indicated by two dates seperated by a dash. The date is identified by leading characters as belonging to one of the following chronologies described here. The date may also represent a correlation by being followed by an equal sign and another date in a different format. Christian era of Old Earth given as: ADyyyy/mm/dd:hh:mm:ss with all fields after the year optional and indicated by the presence of the preceding delimeter. Galactic Era given as : GEyyyyy Era of the First Foundation given as: FEyyy with additional fields as I figure out how they record portions of a year. In the book "Second Foundation", page 73, there are two references which give three numbers seperated by commas, either month, day, year or day, month, year. It's not clear from the context. Somewhere earlier in this book I seem to recall a date being given as one of these two (without year?) with explicit month and day, but don't remember which. 2) Reference: An indication as to which book in my collection and where in that book the information for the entry was found. They are given in a form of BOOK:pages where BOOK will eventually be a reference to my on-line bibliography but for now is probably the title. 3) Textual description of event (may be continued with indented lines) ;;;; The early history of robotics. AD1982 | i, robot:15 | Birth of Susan Calvin. AD1982 | i, robot:15 | Founding of U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men, Inc by Lawrence Robertson. AD1998 | i, robot:18,25 | Actions of story ``Robbie''. AD1998 | i, robot:33 | First talking robot (non-mobile). AD2002~1 | i, robot:15 | Dr. Alfred Lanning of U.S. Robots demonstrates first mobile robot with voice to a Psycho-Math seminar at which Susan Calvin is present. AD2003 | i, robot:15 | Susan Calvin awarded B.S. by Columbia. AD2003-AD2007 | i, robot:39 | Robots banned on Earth except for ``scientific research''. AD2005 | i, robot:40 | First Mercury Expedition (unsuccessful). AD2007 | i, robot:39 | Susan Calvin joins US Robots. AD2008 | i, robot:16 | Susan Calvin awarded Ph.D. by Columbia, joins US Robots. AD2015 | i, robot:39 | Second Mercury Expedition (First successful one) with Gregory Powell, Michael Donovan, and SPD 13 (Speedy). AD2021 | i, robot:98 | RB-34 (Herbie), a mind reading robot, is accidentally constructed. AD2029~1 | i, robot:119 | NS-2 (Nestor) model used at Hyper Base in research on Hyper Drive. Modified First Law makes them slightly unstable. AD2029~1 | i, robot:146-169 | First successful interstellar (actually intergalactic) trip by Gregory Powell and Michael Donovan. AD2032 | i, robot:171 | Stephen Byerley (a robot impersonating a human) enters public office. AD2044 | i, robot:194 | Earth Federation formed. AD2044-AD2052 | i, robot:194 | Stephen Byerley serves two terms as World Co-ordinator. AD2052 | i, robot:195-218 | Earth population approx. 3.3 Billion. AD2057 | i, robot:16,170 | Stephen Byerley ``dies''. AD2058 | i, robot:11 | 56th Edition of ``Hanbook of Robotics'' printed. AD2058 | i, robot:16 | Susan Calvin retires from US Robots. AD2064~1 | i, robot:15,218 | Death of Susan Calvin (age 82). ;;;; The original robot novels

; The determination of all of these dates are inter-related: ; The century is guestimated (with given uncertainty) from comments in "The ; Caves of Steel" pp 17-19, the lower part of the year is based on Op. ; Cit. pp 32-37 which mentions party in '02, and related times given as ; rough deltas. The individual digits of the uncertainty indicate the ; uncertainty in that digit position, thus AD4721~1902 means that the ; century is between 30 and 59 and the year within century is between 19 ; and 23. The Naked Sun takes place a few months after Caves of Steel, ; so the date is given as the next year to sort right but the ; uncertainty is increased to include possibility of being in the same ; year. ; | The Robots of Dawn:43-44 | Aurora was first extra-solar planet settled. ; Originally called New Earth, the name was quickly changed by the ; settlers. ; | The Robots of Dawn:53 | Aurora's sun is 3.67 Parsecs from Earth where it ; is known as Tau Ceti. ; List of Spacer planets (and where mentioned, if infrequent): ; Aurora, Solaria, Euterpe (Robots and Empire:105), Hesperos (Robots and ; Empire:105) AD4400~1999 | The Caves of Steel:17-19 | Founding of the Cities AD4422~1999 | The Naked Sun:115 | Solaria settled from Nexon as population of Nexon approached 2 million ; The Naked sun takes place on Solaria, I think it said it was the last one ; settled. This is corroborated by statements in The Robots of ; Dawn:102-103, from which the date might be AD4470~1929 AD4424~1999 | The Robots of Dawn:100 | Population of Aurora stablizes at two hundred million for at least three centuries. AD4600~1907 | The Robots of Dawn:3 | Dr. Han Fastolfe (who, with Dr. Sarton, designed and constructed Daneel Olivaw) born AD4679~1904 | The Robots of Dawn:3 | Lije Baley born AD4689~1903 | Robots and Empire:93 | Gladia (Delmarre/Solaria/Gremionis) born on Solaria. AD4702~1900 | The Caves of Steel:32-37 | Lije baley meets future wife Jessie at a party. AD4705~1904 | The Robots of Dawn:3 | Ben Baley born AD4721~1902 | The Caves of Steel:17-19 | Total of fifty inhabited planets (excluding Earth?), population of Earth ~= 8 billion, total population of "Outer Worlds" ~= 5.5 billion. AD4721~1902 | The Caves of Steel:17-19 | Elijah (Lije) Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw first meet AD4721~1902 | The Caves of Steel:17-19 | Mention of Aurora as one of the Outer Worlds. AD4722~1903 | The Naked Sun:24 | "Aurora was the strongest of the Outer Worlds" AD4724~1903 | The Robots of Dawn:4 | Story starts, Lije Baley meets Daneel Olivaw and Giskard Reventlov (the mind-reading/mind-adjusting robot) AD4724~1903 | The Robots of Dawn:100 | Population of Aurora has been stable at two hundred million for three centuries. AD4726~1903 | Robots and Empire:57,67,90 | Ben Baley leads first expedition to "Settler" planet, later named Baleyworld in his honor. AD4726~1903 | Robots and Empire:40 | Dr. Fastolfe (with Giskard) visits Lije Baley on Earth and finalizes agreement to help with formation of Settler planets. AD4728~1903 | Robots and Empire:67 | 24 Settler worlds. AD4729~1903 | Robots and Empire:29 | Lije Baley passes time in orbit of Aurora on way to a Settler planet where Ben Baley is already. AD4758~1904 | Robots and Empire:212,226 | Lije Baley dies on Baleyworld, calls for Daneel to be at his side, Gladia accompanies Daneel from Aurora but does not land. AD4842~1909 | Robots and Empire:231 | Nephi Morler is Director of Baleyworld. Population 5 million. AD4922~1905 | Robots and Empire:4 | Apparent reference to the end of Solaria. AD4922~1903 | Robots and Empire:3 | Story begins AD4922~1903 | Robots and Empire:50 | Number of Settler worlds exceeds number of Spacer worlds (49). AD4922~1909 | Robots and Empire:231 | Genovus Pandaral is Director of Baleyworld. ;;;; The early Empire

;; Planets and mentions: ;; Fomalhaut (Pebble in the Sky:21) ;; Trantor (Pebble in the Sky:21)

; | Pebble in the Sky:21 | Mention of Trantor, and other stuff GE750 | Pebble in the Sky:56 | Earth Uprising against the Empire. GE827 | Pebble in the Sky:26 | 50 new planets a day reaching 5e6 pop. ;;;; The Foundation

;; A list of planet names mentioned in the Foundation books (with references): ;; Anacreon ;; Askone (Foundation:122-138) ;; Asperta (F&E:125) ;; Bonde (F&E:125) ;; Glyptal IV (Foundation:121) ;; Haven (F&E:83-94,129) ;; Helicon (2nd F:27) ;; Horleggor (F&E:128) ;; Kalgan (F&E, 2nd 1/2) ;; Korell (Foundation:140+, 2nd F:158) ;; Locris (2nd F:153) ;; Lyonesse (F&E:125) ;; Massena (2nd F:159) ;; Mores (F&E:125) ;; Radole (F&E:127) ;; Rossem (2nd F:34) ;; Santanni (2nd F:153, 158) ;; Siwenna ;; Smushyk (2nd F:159) ;; Smyrno (Foundation:139&) ;; Synnax (Foundation:7) ;; Tazenda (2nd F:26-?) ;; Terminus ;; Trantor

GE11988 | Foundation:7 | Hari Seldon born on Helicon. GE12067 | Foundation:12 | Population of Trantor is 40 billion. GE12068=FE0 | Foundation:7 | Founding of the Foundation. FE001 | Foundation:7 | Death of Hari Seldon. FE018 | Foundation:71 | Birth of Salvor Hardin. FE050 | Foundation:37,143 | First Seldon Crisis, cut off from the Galactic Empire, the Foundation must fend off several kingdoms which wish control. FE080 | Foundation:71,143 | Second Seldon Crisis, the four kingdoms that the Foundation dealt with in the First Crisis are starting to consider retaliation (especially Anacreon) FE133~5 | Foundation:180 | Askone is "conquered" by the Foundation. FE153~1-FE156~2 | Foundation:200 | Third Seldon Crisis? The first encounter between the Foundation and remnants of the old Galactic Empire (actually puppets of ...).

; The Mule FE283~3 | Second Foundation:15 | Mule born. FE310~1 | Foundation and Empire:101 | Four Seldon Crises have passed. FE310~1 | Foundation and Empire:97 | First advances by Mule, particularly Kalgan. FE310~2 | F&E | Marriage of Toran (Torie) and Bayta Darell. FE315~2 | Second Foundation:11 | Story begins (Search for Second Foundation has been underway for five years)

; Search for the Second Foundation (2nd half of "Second Foundation" FE362 | 2nd F:73 | Birth of Arcadia Darell, granddaughter of Toran and Bayta Darell (Actual date 11, 5, 362 F.E.) FE376 | 2nd F:73 | Story (2nd half) opens. ; The following entry, although very specific in the location it occurs, ; disagrees with several other pieces of explicit data. Most notable is that ; this is some thirty days after the preceding entry which comes from the ; same book. It also contradicts the relationship between FE and GE given in ; Foundation, page 7. Furthermore the section represents the further details ; of dates differently than elsewhere. The specific entry contains many ; other tidbits of date data, but due to suspect nature and low utility they ; are not included here. GE11692=FE348 | Second Foundation:144 | Start of Stettinian War FE443 | 2nd F:73 | Death of Arcadia Darell (Actual date 1, 7, 443 F.E.)

FE498 | Foundation's Edge:* | Entire action. FE498 | Foundation and Earth:* | Entire action. ;;; Local variables for Emacs:

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