Psychohistory

"I’m a professor of probability theory at Streeling University. Specifically, the area of psychohistory."
"Define that for us, please."
"Psychohistory is a predictive model designed to forecast the behavior of very large populations."
"In plainspoken terms, you claim to be able to predict the future?"
"Well, I don’t know what you’re going to have for dinner, if that’s what you’re asking."

—Hari Seldon and Advocate Xylas^[src]

Psychohistory is a new science developed by noted mathematician Hari Seldon. It has the ability to accurately predict future events.

General Information

Developed by noted mathematician Hari Seldon, Psychohistory is a combination of science and mathematics that uses probability and historical analysis to predict trends and patterns within large social groups. While it could not predict the actions of an individual, it could predict the behavior of large societal groups. With this new science, Hari Seldon predicted that the Galactic Empire would fall within five centuries, and be followed by a period of thirty thousand years of barbarism.

Housed within a device called the Prime Radiant is all of Hari's calculations regarding the fall of Empire. His theories caused concern within the Empire, and with the Emperors themselves who believed that Hari's predictions could cause faith in the Empire to be undermined. While recognising that the fall was inevitable, Hari knew that manipulating certain events could accelerate or slow the fall. In an effort to reduce the amount of years spent in a dark age, Hari proposed the creation of a Foundation to safeguard knowledge and civilization.

From the Foundation Books

Psychohistory is a form of science initially developed by Han Fastolfe. Combining history, psychology, and mathematical statistics, the science can predict a nearly exact model of the behaviour of large groups of people. It is the study of the reaction of human conglomerates when exposes to to economic and social stimuli. Psychohistory was expanded through the efforts of Hari Seldon, Dr. Gaal Dornick and other mathematicians.

Seldon used Psychohistory to predict the fall of the Galactic Empire and a following dark age lasting thirty thousand years. In an effort to stave off the barbarism that civilization would fall into, Seldon used his new science to nudge events in a certain direction that would see the dark age reduced to only a thousand years through the establishment of the Foundations, two groups of scientists and engineers tasked with the mission of preserving science and civilization.

Appearances

• Season One
  • "The Emperor's Peace" (First appearance)
  • "Preparing to Live"
  • "The Mathematician's Ghost"
  • "Barbarians at the Gate"
• Season Two
  • "King and Commoner"

External Links

• Learn more about Psychohistory on the Isaac Asimov Wiki

Notes and references