First Speaker is a post in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series of stories and novels.
The First Speaker is the effective head of the Second Foundation. At meetings of the executive council of the Second Foundation, he/she always speaks first. The council (known informally as the "Table") consists of twelve Speakers. Each Speaker begins as a student, as at an institute of higher learning, and is expected to have made an original contribution to the Seldon Plan which has been scrutinised and accepted by the existing Board. Speakers frequently communicate via telepathy and generalised hand gestures, which can communicate a concept more clearly and directly than actual speech.
Whilst the title implies that the First Speaker is merely one of the twelve, in effect he/she is primus inter pares, and therefore in practice, the position holds more power than indicated. The position became more important through the history of the Foundation.
Read more about First Speaker: First Speakers
Famous quotes containing the word speaker:
“The most attractive sentences are, perhaps, not the wisest, but the surest and roundest. They are spoken firmly and conclusively, as if the speaker had a right to know what he says, and if not wise, they have at least been well learned.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)