Hari Seldon

Just curious if many of the mathematicians here have read the Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and what they about the premise behind the series. Basically whether it would ever be feasible to predict the path of society using math. Personally I think in the short term it may be possible but for the long term I would think variance would send the accuracy of the predictions out the window. Anyway I am just curious what people trained in math think of the series and their thoughts on the premise of the series.

Quote: waasnoday

Just curious if many of the mathematicians here have read the Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and what they about the premise behind the series. Basically whether it would ever be feasible to predict the path of society using math. Personally I think in the short term it may be possible but for the long term I would think variance would send the accuracy of the predictions out the window. Anyway I am just curious what people trained in math think of the series and their thoughts on the premise of the series.

Saw the heading
Huge Foundation fan
Why isn't there a dam movie? You listening Peter Jackson now that all the rings are done.
The theory is that you need astronomical numbers to be able to predict with math in the Asimov books.
The Foundation Universe is so far in the future, nobody knows what planet humans originated from
Don't remember numbers but I imagine over 100,000 planets populated with humans in the fictitious Foundation universe.
Therefore the number of humans is staggering and that is the basis behind "Psychohistory" the mathematicians that predicted and tried to shape the future.