4 ms·
I immediately thought of Hari Seldon when I read the opening sentences of the original article. And this quote from the blog post is so awesome > But no, I do
by unoti 6y ago
I immediately thought of Hari Seldon when I read the opening sentences of the original article. And this quote from the blog post is so awesome
> But no, I don’t think of myself as a Hari Seldon...
And then goes on to explain why he's better. Love it!
Despite what Peter Turchin says in that quote, he is a lot like Hari Seldon: both of them model history scientifically, and both of them have a rough plan or roadmap for getting out of our current trouble. He says at the end of the above link:
> And my hope is that Cliodynamics will eventually pay its debt to History by showing that studying past societies is not just an academic endeavor — it can help us understand, among other things, our current Age of Discord, how we got into it, and what we can do to navigate the turbulent waters ahead.
- Noos 6y agoSeldon was a magic prophet dressed up in scientist garb, rolling the chicken bones/making a Theory that his secret society of scientist/magicians carried out to save the roman empire/universe. Foundation was popular not because it was actual science fiction, but because like much of sf, it flatters and states the prejudices the engineer class has-that politics leads to barbarism, that the mass of people need guidance from a rational class, and that science is magic and can solve and predict any problem. Guys like this are doing the same, they are popular not because of SCIENCE but because they state the prejudices of the rational class. If he has a model, ask him how it applies to the town of Willimantic, CT, which is by Uconn, and watch him have zero to actually say about it