Peter's review
Foundation and Empire (Foundation Series, #3)
by Isaac Asimov
Peter's review
Foundation and Empire (Foundation Series, #3) by Isaac Asimov
Peter's review
rating:
As Asimov kept writing Foundation shorts, they kept getting longer. There are actually only two stories in this volume, and the second is significantly longer than the other. For this reason it really dominates the read, and so I'll focus on it.
The whole premise of psychohistory and the Foundation is to use mathematics to predict a macroscopic view future, and then use those predictions to make a macroscopic plan of how to (with some known and less than 100% probability of success) steer the future in a desired direction. The problem with this is that it can't account for microscopic events (and in particular *random* ones) that might alter the course of history.
So Asimov throws Hari Seldon one heck of a screwball in the form of a megalomanical telepath known as the Mule--a genetic aberration (not predictable by psychohistory!) with designs on taking over the galaxy. Since Seldon is long dead, it's up to the heroes of the day to figure out how to deal with it and keep the F...more
The whole premise of psychohistory and the Foundation is to use mathematics to predict a macroscopic view future, and then use those predictions to make a macroscopic plan of how to (with some known and less than 100% probability of success) steer the future in a desired direction. The problem with this is that it can't account for microscopic events (and in particular *random* ones) that might alter the course of history.
So Asimov throws Hari Seldon one heck of a screwball in the form of a megalomanical telepath known as the Mule--a genetic aberration (not predictable by psychohistory!) with designs on taking over the galaxy. Since Seldon is long dead, it's up to the heroes of the day to figure out how to deal with it and keep the F...more
