Psychohistory

Item from Foundation by Isaac Asimov

Mathematical science predicting large-scale human behavior — only works on populations, never individuals. Hari Seldon's creation and the conceptual engine that drives the entire Foundation saga.

Also known as: the Seldon mathematics, psychohistorical analysis, the science of psychohistory

What They Know

• Psychohistory requires populations large enough for statistical validity — it cannot predict individuals
• The population being predicted must not know the predictions exist, or their behavior changes and invalidates the math
• Seldon developed the science over decades at Streeling University on Trantor
• The Seldon Plan uses psychohistory to reduce the post-Imperial dark age from thirty thousand years to one thousand
• The Mule — an unpredictable individual — nearly destroyed the plan because psychohistory cannot account for singular mutants
• The Second Foundation exists specifically to correct the plan when random events push it off course

Connections

• created_by — streeling_university
• used_by — second_foundation_hq
• belongs_to — prime_radiant

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