Who's Who in Asimov P

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Pallas: One of the Outer Worlds. (3-12-49)
Palley, Orum: Member of the underground democratic opposition on Terminus, and fellow-conspirator in Han Pritcher's plot to assassinate the Mule. (11-II-20)
Palver, Joramis: Grandfather of Stettin Palver, two years younger than Hari Seldon, at one time invited to join Seldon's psychohistory project. (9-IV-24)
Palver, Preem: Nineteenth First Speaker of the Second Foundation who gained his post at the age of forty-two and, concerned at the First Foundation's research into psychology, devised a plan to lead the First Foundation into believing that they had destroyed the Second. (12-II-8-10,15,18,19,22; 13-5-17,12-48); In the guise of a trading representative of a Trantor farming cooperative, and with his wife, who was also a Speaker, he visited Kalgan during the expedition there of Homir Munn and Arkady Darell and while Kalgan was preparing for war aganist the Foundation. From there he escorted Arkady to a safe refuge on Trantor, and, while taking farm produce to the beleaguered Terminus, was initially arrested as a spy by Foundation forces, but after being released was able to carry the refugee Arkady's message to her father which led to the First Foundation's action against the Second Foundation's members on Terminus.
Palver, Stettin: History graduate of the University of Langano, met by Hari Seldon on Trantor. An accomplished Twister, he was initially employed as a bodyguard by Seldon, but became one of the key members of the covert Second Foundation when it was discovered that he had mental powers similar to those of Wanda Seldon. (9-IV-24,25,26,30,31,32,34)
Pandaral, Genovus: Senior Director of the executive board of Baleyworld. (4-III-9-35)
Pandion: One of Gladia Delmarre's robots on Aurora. (3-6-23)
Panell, Jander: Second and last humaniform robot designed and built on Aurora by Han Fastolfe, and while on loan to Gladia Delmarre induced into mental freeze-out by Giskard Reventlov to prevent knowledge of humaniform robots being gained by Kelden Amadiro's anti-Earth Globalists. (3-2-7 etc.)
Parma, Jord: Agent of the Korellian Secret Police employed as an agent provocateur by Jorane Sutt in an attempt to discredit Hober Mallow. (10-V-4)
Participation: Gaian artefact designed to allow the user to experience a different aspect of the object's consciousness or, in the case of animate objects, to perceive ecological balance. (13-17-74)
Paul, Gerhard: One of the minor leaders of the anti-robot Mediaevalists of Earth. (1-12)
Pelorat, Janov: Professor of ancient history at Terminus University with an interest in the Origin Question, having spent some thirty years collecting myths and legends about the lost planet Earth. His academic interests having meant that he had never before left Terminus, he was sent by Harla Branno with Golan Trevize ostensibly on a quest to find Earth. On their arrival at Gaia he was immediately attracted by the Gaian woman Bliss, and accompanied her and Trevize back into space when Trevize was required to decide who of the two Foundations, or Gaia itself, would have the major influence on the future of the galaxy. On their return to Gaia, he originally intended to remain there with Bliss, but instead accompanied her and Trevize in a renewed, and ultimately successful, search for Earth. (13-3 etc.; 14)
Pelot's Nebula: Object in Trantor's sky. (12-I-2)
Periphery: Area at the edge of the galaxy where were located the Four Kingdoms, Askone, Korell, Santanni and Terminus. (10-II-1)
Pherl: Favoured councillor of Askone, via whom Limmar Ponyets negotiated the first of the Foundation's interplanetary trade agreements after the influence of the Foundation's priesthood had run its course. (10-IV-4,5,6)
Pirenne, Lewis (10-II): Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Encyclopedia Committee. His dogmatic insistence on adhering to the status of Terminus as a neutral, state-supported scientific institution at a time when the Periphery was in open revolt with the Empire led to Salvor Hardin's coup.
Planchet (9-II-12): Identity adopted by Raych Seldon during his investigation of the death of Kaspal Kaspalov.
Pohang: Chamberlain at the court of the Khan of the Tyranni. His desire to be paired with Artemisia oth Hinriad caused considerable anxiety. (6-20)
Poli: Maid employed by the younger Toran Darell. (12-II-7)
Ponyets, Limmar: Foundation ecclesiastical trainee turned independent trader sent by the Foundation to Askone to negotiate the release of the imprisoned Eskel Gorov. In the course of doing so, he secured the first of the Foundation's interplanetary trade agreements. (10-IV)
Poochie: See Stettin, Lord. (12-II-12)
Prescott: Personnel officer at New York Yeast at the time of the murder of Roj Nemennuh Sarton. (1-15)
Preston: Alfred Barr Humboldt's personal robot. (Mirror Image)
Prime Radiant: Device, designed by Hari Seldon and built by Yugo Amaryl, used to contain and display the Seldon Plan as it was continually developed firstly by Seldon's psychohistory researchers and subsequently by the Second Foundation. (9-II-3,IV-3,19; 12-II-8; 13-5-18)
Pritcher, Han: Captain of the Information Section of the Foundation War Department, a rank he had been unable to go beyond because what to him seemed initiative was, to a Foundation governed by a reactionary plutocracy, insubordination.; Ordered by Indbur III to collect unpaid taxes from Haven, he went instead to the seemingly-strong Kalgan to investigate its sudden conquest by the Mule, and accompanied Bayta and Toran Darell and, unknowingly, the Mule, to Terminus, where he was arrested. Almost immediately Terminus fell to the Mule's forces, and Pritcher joined the underground resistance movement, attempting a suicide bomb attack on the Mule's palace. There he was met by the former warlord of Kalgan, installed on Terminus as the Mule's viceroy, and learned that he had been betrayed. From there he was flown to intercept the Darells, Mis and the Mule on their way to Trantor so that the Mule could "convert" him.; As, in effect, the Mule's second in command, Pritcher was promoted first to Colonel and later General, meeting the Darells briefly on Trantor. Five years later he was sent, with Bail Channis, by the Mule to continue the search for the Second Foundation. After the Mule was reconditioned by the Second Foundation's First Speaker on Rossem, Pritcher continued to serve the Mule until the latter's death a few years later, when he succeeded the Mule for a while as First Citizen of the Union. After his attempt to lay siege to the rebelling Terminus nothing further is heard of him. (11-II-12,14,18,20,21,24)
Probe, Psychic: See Psychic Probe.
Psychic Probe: Device used primarily for the interrogation of suspected criminals, the correction of mental disorders and the removal of "criminal impulses". Employed not at all by Earth's police and hardly ever on Aurora, it was used with some impunity by the Foundation, despite it officially being outlawed except for medical pruposes, and the fact that 20,000 years of technological progress seemed to have done little to lessen the dangers of its use. (3-2-7,8-32,17-74; 5-prologue,epilogue; 11-I-2,6,II-17; 13-1-3; 14-II-5-20)
Psychohistory: The idea of a mathematical "Laws of Humanics" parallelling the Laws of Robotics was first posited on Aurora by Giskard Reventlov and Han Fastolfe, though both realised that it was well beyond existing knowledge. It did not resurface until the Galactic Empire was in decline when, at the Decennial Convention on Trantor, Hari Seldon presented a paper of the theoretical potential of psychohistory as a mathematics of social change, dealing with the reactions of very large human populations to social and economic stimuli. This was siezed upon by various factions as a means of furthering their own political ends, but it was Daneel Olivaw, then acting the role of Eto Demerzel, Chief of Staff to Cleon I, who encouraged Seldon to develop psychohistory as a means of securing a more humane galaxy after the inevitable fall of the Empire, and of giving some quantifiable meaning to the concept of humanity which he and Giskard Reventlov had introduced in their Zeroth Law of Robotics.; Seldon and his close associate Yugo Amaryl came to realise that psychohistory as a purely predictive science was of little practical use in the upheavals which would inevitably accompany the disintegration of the Empire, and that what was needed was a more prescriptive science. The idea, devised by Seldon and Amaryl, for a Second Foundation of psychohistorians who would covertly continue to develop the Seldon Plan and ensure that the First Foundation of physical scientists stuck to it, became a reality when first Wanda Seldon, then Stettin Palver, Bor Alurin and others were found to have mental powers of the kind that would be needed by the Second Foundation.; To the rest of the galaxy, psychohistory was largely a metaphor for a supposedly complete Seldon Plan which had already assured the future success of the expanding Foundation, while to the Second Foundation hidden on Trantor it meant their continuing work of ensuring that the Foundation, and the galaxy, developed in a way which it considered appropriate.; Psychohistory had two fundamental axioms; that the number of people to whom it was being applied should be large enough for a statistical treatment of them to be valid, and that humanity should not know the results of the application of psychohistory before the results were achieved. It was not until after Golan Trevize had intuitively decided in favour of Galaxia, and met Daneel Olivaw, that he recognised the hitherto unknown inherent weakness of psychohistory, that it only held as long as there was only one intelligent species in the galaxy.; After the resolution of the Gaia crisis the Foundation believed that neither the Second Foundation, nor psychohistory, really existed and that their destiny was in their own hands, but with that resolution all interpretations of psychohistory became obsolete through the continuing development of Gaia towards the galactic consciousness of Galaxia. (3-5-21,22,19-84; 4-III-9-36; 8; 9; 13-1-3; 14-VII-21-104)