Galactic Empire (Isaac Asimov) - Consensus Cosmogony

Consensus Cosmogony

Asimov's Galactic Empire was the first example after Olaf Stapledon's 1937 science fiction novel Star Maker of one of the eight stages of a "consensus cosmogony", also called the Science Fiction Cosmology, identified by Donald A. Wollheim in the 1950s, which science fiction writers needed only hint at in their stories for experienced SF readers to slot into their perception of future history and envisage the background to the tale without the writers having to expend time and space explicitly laying it out. These stages are:

1. The initial exploration, colonization, and exploitation of the solar system, including plots modeled on the American War of Independence where the human colonies on Mars, Venus, or other planets declare independence from Earth
2. The first flights to the stars, with plots similar to those of the preceding stage
3. The rise of a Galactic Empire, and possible contact, either friendly or hostile, with empires of alien species (however, in Asimov's galactic empire concept, there are no other alien races in the Milky Way Galaxy)
4. The Galactic Empire at its height, with exploration occurring at its Rim
5. The Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire, as explored by Asimov and later other authors
6. The Galactic Dark Ages, an interregnum with worlds reverting to barbarism, as also partially explored by Asimov
7. The Galactic Renaissance, where a new democratic Galactic Civilization arises, including the restoration of civilization to and communication with worlds that were isolated during the Fall—this stage was called by Stapledon the Galactic Community of Worlds, was called by Asimov the Foundation Federation, and is most commonly called by most authors the Galactic Federation
8. The Challenge To God, an effort to solve the last secrets of the universe by transcending matter and morphing into beings of pure energy, the end of time, and the investigation of and instigation of the beginnings of new universes--Stapledon covers this in the last part of Star Maker and Asimov covers it in his short story The Last Question