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Comment by brobdingnagians | Hacker News Reader

Love the reference to Hari Seldon, the famed psychohistorian from Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. If you haven't read the Foundation trilogy, get a copy to enjoy during lockdown, it is fantastic.

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I think it is an important reference.

Hari Seldon wasn't real. Psychohistory isn't real. I find the response to Turchin's work from the STEM and Humanities communities fascinating. STEM people drool. Here is this scientist who has systematized human civilization! Humanities people roll their eyes so hard they fall out of their head after encountering mountains of basic errors in Turchin's analysis.

His work is not good.

Ah, the foundation trilogy. Prepper culture apocalypse fairy tales – but for academians.

> Ah, the foundation trilogy. Prepper culture apocalypse fairy tales – but for academians.

It was written in the early 1950's. Did prepper culture exist then to the same extent as it does today?

I did not mean to describe the creation of the book – I only wanted to describe the current role of the book and an explanation for its enduring popularity in some circles. Come to think of it, this is possibly an undiscovered genre; Anathem might belong there, too, as might Sucker Bait and A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Interesting, I didn't realize it was popular in prepper circles. I read it in early teenage years and just loved the mega-history of a book spanning several thousand years. Same with some of Olaf Stapledon's books-- before, I had only read books spanning a single persons lifetime. I guess it makes sense that preppers would also be drawn to it, given the nature of the galactic collapse and underdog civilization making it through.

I have no knowledge of its popularity among preppers – I explicitly said it was for academians.

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