# Asimov's Foundation - niece needs help **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 16, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603 "2011-02-16T17:45:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603/41 "2011-02-18T16:32:44Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Speaking from memory here (I haven’t read the “Foundation” series in years), but I have a question about the guidance given by the simulacrum. > Was it a prerecorded message, or was there a master computer somewhere that generated the message, given at the time of a “Selden Crisis”? > Hari (when he was alive) knew that the Second Foundation would evenutally prevail-so were these lectures more of a “pep talk”, like a football coach delvers to his team? > Or was the plan a dynamic one, which would generate the lecture that the simulacrum delivered? Definitely prerecorded. That’s how the First Foundationers knew the Mule wasn’t accounted for in the Plan - the message talked about a civil war between the independent traders and the Foundation core planets that never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603/42 "2011-02-18T17:40:46Z")
The Second Foundation was a backup plan, intended to further develop psychohistory and step in if things did go off track and the First Foundation was destroyed or the Seldon Plan was failing. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603/43 "2011-02-18T18:10:50Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > The Second Foundation was a backup plan, intended to further develop psychohistory and step in if things did go off track and the First Foundation was destroyed or the Seldon Plan was failing. It was also supposed to take over at the end of the 1000 year Interregnum and run the Second Galactic Empire on sound psychohistoric principles. That’s why the Firsties decided to wipe it out. ---
**Author:** ![Zoinks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zoinks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoinks)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2011, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603/44 "2011-02-19T02:58:49Z")
> [@MarcusF](#): > > Long time since I read them but I always had a problem with the whole idea of the pre-ordained Seldon Crisis with its inevitable (or at least probabilistically predictable) outcome. As I remember it there is always an individual or group opposed to the action being taken by our ‘hero’ - Hardin etc. How does p-history, that only works on the scale of millions of people, determine the prabability that the individual with the correct solution to the crisis will prevail? > > Surely all it takes is one blaster bolt from a disgruntled member of the opposition and the hero is smoke and so is the future of Seldon’s plan! Isn’t that what happened in one story, the Emperor was killed by his gardener because the guy didn’t want to be promoted? Or was that from one of the later stories? Also, remember when Mr. Fantastic invented psychohistory? That was pretty stupid. Ah, Civil War, it’s the dumb that keeps on dumbening. I miss mightygodking’s parodies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/asimovs-foundation-niece-needs-help/571603.md?page=2)