Chapter 3 third chapter

Gail wasn't sure if the sun was out now, or even if it was day or night, because the whole planet seemed to be covered with a metal skin, but he was too shy to ask people.The meal he just ate was marked as "lunch", but now many planets use Galactic standard time regardless of the inconvenience of reversed day and night.Each planet rotated at a different rate, and Gale did not yet know how many hours a day on Trantor was. Just now he followed the road signs with great interest and found the so-called "sun room", but found that only artificial radiation sunbathing could be provided there.He only stayed there for a while before returning to the lobby of the hotel.

He asked the hotel clerk, "Where can I register for a round-the-world tour?" "right here." "When to set off?" "You just missed one, but there's another one tomorrow. If you buy your ticket now, we can reserve a seat for you." "Oh—" Tomorrow was too late, because tomorrow he had to report to Trantor University.So Gail asked again: "Is there a viewing tower or something here? I mean, that kind of open-air building." "Of course! If you want to go, I can also sell tickets here. But let me see if it's raining first." The hotel clerk pressed a switch by his elbow, and a flow appeared on the frosted glass screen. font, and Gail stared with him.

Then the clerk turned around and said, "Good weather. I remembered, it should be the dry season now." Then he continued, "I'm too lazy to go outside myself. It was three years ago when I was outside. You just have to look once and understand what's going on—here's your ticket, please." Go to the back and take the special elevator, which says 'direct access to the tower'." The elevator was the latest model, propelled by anti-gravity.After Gail walked in, many people came in immediately.The operator presses a switch, and the gravity in the elevator disappears completely. Gale immediately feels a kind of floating, and when the elevator starts to accelerate, he feels a little weight again.But when the elevator decelerated, Gail's feet left the elevator floor, which made him scream.

The operator yelled, "Put your feet in the middle of the bars, can't you read the signs?" Gail is the only one in the elevator making a fool of himself.Everyone couldn't help laughing when he tried desperately to climb back but couldn't.It turned out that there were many parallel metal pipes on the floor of the elevator, each about two feet apart, and all the other passengers stood on these chrome-plated rails with their feet.When Gail first entered the elevator, he actually saw these bars, but he didn't pay attention to them at all.Fortunately, a hand reached out and pulled him down just in time.

When the elevator stopped, Gail gasped and thanked. Walking out of the elevator is an open-air platform, and the incandescent light makes Gail's eyes feel uncomfortable.The man who had reached out to Gail in the elevator just now was right behind him. The man said in a cordial tone, "There are a lot of seats here." The stunned Gail quickly closed his mouth, and then replied, "Of course, it seems right." He was about to find a seat, but suddenly stopped. "If you don't mind, I'd like to stand on the railing for a while, I... I want to see more scenery." Gale said to the man.

The man waved to him kindly, and Gail leaned on the shoulder-length railing, enjoying the surrounding scenery to his heart's content. But he couldn't see the ground, which had already been swallowed up by more and more complex man-made buildings, and he couldn't see the horizon either. There was only a large piece of gray metal bordering the sky in front of him.Gale knew that the same spherical shell of metal was everywhere on the surface of the planet.Looking around, he could hardly see any moving objects, only a few tourist spaceships floating lazily in the sky.But of course Gail knew that there were tens of billions of busy people in this world, but they all lived under a huge metal outer layer.

There is nothing green as far as the eye can see, no plants, no soil, and no living things other than people.He vaguely remembered hearing people say that in a certain corner of the world, there is a hundred square miles of natural soil around the palace, which is full of green trees and dotted with rainbow-like flowers. The only isolated island, unfortunately it cannot be seen here.Maybe thousands of miles away, but he didn't know exactly where. Before long, he's got to do a round-the-world trip! He sighed loudly, remembering that he was finally on Trantor now.This planet is the heart of the galaxy, the center of gravity of humanity.He didn't see the weakness here at all—he didn't see the food ships coming and going, and he didn't know about the delicate carotid artery linking the four hundred billion people of Trantor to the rest of the world.He could now appreciate only the greatest of human feats, the complete, almost arrogant, conquest of an entire planet.

He left the railing, feeling a little confused.The man he just met pointed to the chair next to him, and Gail sat down. The man smiled and said to him, "My name is Jarrell. Is this your first time on Trantor?" "Yes, Mr. Jerrell." "I think so too—Jarrell's my first name, not my last name. If you're poetic, Trantor will fascinate you. The natives never come here though, they don't like it because Makes them nervous." "Nervous? Oh, my name is Gail. Why does it make them nervous? It's just magnificent." "It's all subjective. Gail, if you're born in a small room, grow up in a cloister, work in an airless room all day, and go on vacation to the crowded sun room. Then being in this open space with nothing but the sky above your head is likely to give you a nervous breakdown. The locals take their kids up once a year after they turn five, I don't know how to do that Does it do them any good, but I don't think it's enough. The first few times the little ones come, they scream hysterically. They should come long after weaning and once a week."

Then Jarrell went on, "Of course, it doesn't matter, they're never going to come out. They all like to hide in there and run the empire happily. How high do you think it is here?" Gale replied, "Half a mile?" He was worried that he had guessed too far. Jarrell chuckled, and Gail knew it was too outrageous.Then Jerrell said, "No, only five hundred feet." "What? But the elevator left and..." "I know, but most of the time is spent rising to the surface. Trantor's subterranean mile is full of tunnels, like icebergs, nine-tenths of them are hidden below. We dug down for miles. In fact, this depth allows us to use the temperature difference between there and the surface as an energy source, did you know that?"

"I don't know, I thought you were using nuclear power to generate electricity." "It used to work for a while, but it's cheaper now." "I think so." "What's your overall impression of Trantor?" Jarrell's amiable demeanor suddenly turned smart, almost sly. Gail searched his brains, but all he could say was, "Magnificent." "Are you here for vacation? Or for sightseeing?" "None—although I've always wanted to visit Trantor, I'm here mainly for a job." "Oh?" Gail felt he should explain more clearly: "I'm here to join Dr. Seldon's research program at Trantor University."

"Crowmouth Seldon?" "Ah, no, I mean Hari Seldon—the famous psychohistorian. I don't know the Mr. Seldon you speak of." "I'm talking about him. Everyone calls him Crow's Mouth. That's his nickname because he always likes to predict disaster." "Really?" Gail was shocked. "How could you not know?" Jarrell didn't smile this time: "Didn't you come to work with him?" "Oh, yes, I'm a mathematician—why would he predict catastrophe? What kind of catastrophe?" "What kind of disaster do you think?" "I'm sorry, but I have no idea. I have read many papers published by Dr. Seldon and his colleagues, but they are all mathematical theories." "Yes, you mean the ones they published." Gail was a little unhappy when he heard that, so he said to Jarrell, "Nice to meet you, I want to go back to my room now." Jarrell raised his hand and waved it as a farewell to Gail. Gail went back to his room to find someone inside.He was in a hurry, and he didn't care about any politeness, so he blurted out and asked, "What are you doing here?" The man stood up slowly. He was very old, his hair was almost bald, and he had a limp.Yet he had blue and white eyes that still seemed to sparkle. He said to Gal: "I am Hari Seldon." Gail's brain full of confusion just happened to put the person in front of him together with the familiar image in his memory. Psychohistory... Gail Donick has defined psychohistory as a branch of mathematics using common non-mathematical concepts. Psychohistory deals exclusively with the responses of groups of humans to specific social and economic stimuli... Implicit in the various definitions is the assumption that the population of humans to be studied must be large enough to be statistically be dealt with.As for the lower limit of the number of groups, it can be determined by Seldon's first law... In addition, there is another necessary assumption that no one in those groups must know that they are a sample of psychohistorical analysis, so as to ensure that all responses are truly random... The foundation of the success of psychohistory lies in the development and correct application of the Seldon function.These functions exhibit properties exactly equal to those of social and economic forces. . .