The Prime Radiant is a data storage device containing all of Hari Seldon's psychohistorical calculations on the fall of the Galactic Empire.[3] The prototype of the Prime Radiant was developed by Hari and Yanna Seldon while working at a university on the planet Helicon.[4] It is a quantum supercomputer that exists in a state of superposition, allowing it to exist in two places simultaneously.[1] The Prime Radiant was created by Hari Seldon and his life mate, Yanna, using Kalle's work on space folding to create a four-dimensional space in a three-dimensional object.[2] It was activated in a specific way, through a complex series of hand movements.[3]
Hari Seldon kept it on his person,[5] and after his death it was taken from his office by Mari Hardin.[6] It was used by Salvor Hardin to open the Vault on Terminus.[7] When Salvor Hardin left Terminus to find Gaal Dornick, Mari gave her the Radiant, saying it was meant for Gaal.[8]
When Salvor and Gaal met on Synnax, Gaal transferred the digital copy of Hari that was carried in the knife she had taken from the Raven into the Radiant. Inside, Hari, who had been consciousness for over a century while Gaal was in cryosleep, met an entity who took on the form of both Yanna Seldon and Kalle in an effort to help Hari's mind recover from the strain of being active for so long and allow him to effectively escape from the Radiant.[2]
In 12,392 Era Imperial, the Radiant was consulted daily by Demerzel, who had been using it for a century and half to assist the Galactic Empire in preventing their own decline. Because of this, the Empire was able to hold on to more power than Seldon's original calculations had predicted. Following the fall of Kalgan to the Mule, the calculations began to show an inflection point that showed that events were in motion that predicted the end of the Empire in four months despite their efforts to arrest the decline. Not only that, but the darkness beyond could also represent the extinction of the human species.[9]
Appearances[]
- Season One
- "The Emperor's Peace" (First appearance)
- "Preparing to Live"
- "The Mathematician's Ghost"
- "Barbarians at the Gate"
- "The First Crisis"
- "The Leap"
- Season Two
- Season Three