One of the most dangerous ideas in SF. . .

I recently read a rather interesting sfnal riff on Obama's state of the union speech, based on an administration reference to a "New Foundation":

But I recall reading here or somewhere that Paul Krugman and several other leading economic and legal academic-policymakers had come to their professions wanting to be … Hari Seldon.  Deeply attracted to the idea of a mathematically-based psychohistory.

It reminded me of other references to Hari Seldon I've heard at convention panels and such, very...