Mass Action and the Seldon Plan

Mass action is a social theory developed by people such as Karl Marx in an attempt to understand group behavior. In the Foundation, Asimov uses the idea to claim that it can help predict the future and, in this case, predict the downfall of the empire and then 30,000 years of poverty before the rise of the next one. However, that is only if things are left as they are. A man named Hari Seldon develops the Foundation and the Second Foundation to help steer the Galaxy in a different direction by using the ideas behind Mass action. For example, the Second Foundation speakers can predict the probability of the Mule finding their location and then act upon their findings a year before it happens. What they could not predict was the existence of the Mule as he is a mutant. This leads to...