Asimov's Psychohistory

[jacobin1949]

Asimov's Psychohistory

Anyone ever read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. I think its a kind of neat way of understanding Historical Materialism and the role of the vanguard party. Its a tad mechanical deterministic, but it does present some complex issues in simple scifi terms. I wouldn;t call it Marxist, but there are strong parallels especially the connection between atoms and mass history.

[bluescouse]

Originally posted by [email protected] 29, 2007 03:30 am
Asimov's Psychohistory

Anyone ever read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy. I think its a kind of neat way of understanding Historical Materialism and the role of the vanguard party. Its a tad mechanical deterministic, but it does present some complex issues in simple scifi terms. I wouldn;t call it Marxist, but there are strong parallels especially the connection between atoms and mass history.
Yes I have read most of Asimov's books,and loved them. I personally believe that, at least in his earlier works, psychohistory was strongly influenced by Marx's historical materialism. Later additions ot his foundation saga were more about selling books. I still enjoyed them as a good yarn though.
Getting back though to the whole story, if you believe in the spiral development of History, as Marx did, if global communism is a development of tribal communism, except on higher level, then if faster than light space travel is possible, a whole new spiral in the future comes about. For example, A slave society on a new level(The robot books). A feudal society on a new level (The empire). A capitalist society (The foundation). And in the end, another form of communism, hinted at the end of the foundation stories.