Sunday 5 April 2020

Society And Psychology

Isaac Asimov's future history and Poul Anderson's first future history have two ideas in common:

a predictive mathematics of society;

the enhancement of individual psychological abilities.

These are not the same idea. Asimov:

presents Hari Seldon as formulating psychohistorical mathematics;

later, presents enhanced mental abilities as a consequence of psychohistory;

later again, presents such abilities as being discovered and developed independently.

In Anderson's Psychotechnic History, Eino Valti formulates psychodynamics whereas Michael Tighe devises Synthesis training.

See:

Valri, Desai And Seldon
Synthesis And Sensitivity

Seldon's Plan is thrown off course by an unpredictable individual mutant but restored by the secretive Second Foundation which in turn is manipulated by the planetary organism, Gaia, and, beyond it, by the robots led by Daneel Olivaw who have yet to address the issue, and potential threat, of extragalactic intelligences.

The Psychotechnic Institute is outlawed after the Humanist Revolt and is prevented from making a disastrous perverted comeback by the Order of Planetary Engineers. However, psychotechnics is practiced in a later Galactic civilization.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

And I think you meant "The Chapter Ends" with that "later, again." Which touches on our old argument on whether that early story of Anderson BELONGS in the Psychotechnic series. I said no, while you said yes. I still think Sandra Miesel shoe horned "Chapter" into the series, despite it having nothing that truly connects it to the undoubted Psychotechnic stories.

Ad astra! Sean