Psychohistory
According to Asimov's novels, Hari Seldon devised the Seldon Plan using a mathematical analysis he originally developed and called psychohistory. His analysis worked only for large numbers of persons, at least 50 billion, pursuing their idiosyncratic life interests, uninterested in shaping future history, and gave probable paths for historical developments. Using this technique, Seldon deduced that it was certain the Galactic Empire was about to collapse, and usher in 30,000 years of barbarism.
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