Wɘ ʇinb oυt in tʜɘ ʇinɒl Azimov volυmɘ tʜɒt tʜɘ Mυlɘ wɒƨ ɒ Әɒiɒn, tʜoυϱʜ not ɒ ɿodot. Әɒiɒ wɒƨ ʇoυnbɘb dγ Я. Ⴇɒnɘɘl Olivɒw. Iʇ I ɿɘɔɒll it wɒƨ ɒ ƨibɘ dɘt iʇ tʜɘ ƨɘɔonb ʇoυnbɒtion bibn't ƨɒvɘ ʜυmɒnitγ.
> We find out in the final Asimov volume that the Mule was a Gaian, though not a robot. Gaia was founded by R. Daneel Olivaw. If I recall it was a side bet if the second foundation didn't save humanity.
Do kids these days not know about rot13?
Mind control was such an event that psychohistory could not account for. Sometimes things just happen and spoil our plans.
The point of a black swan that there doesn't have to be a cause.
That's the first I've heard that suggested.
It's a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight; based on a Latin expression which presumed that black swans did not exist which stopped being used that way in 1697 when people found actual black swans.
Though certainly at the time of writing Second Foundation he had no idea what caused it, was writing by the seat of his pants, and was just looking for a MacGuffin that would confuse everything he'd built in the first Foundation novel.
If you were actually looking for Asimov at his most "Lord of the Rings" I'd actually suggest probably "The Gods Themselves". There the worldbuilding was far more central and important to the narrative.
That makes sense that he was trying to find a way to break it, I just think chaos theory would break it very well on its own. It’s not possible to forecast weather accurately past what, two weeks? And the second foundation was going to predict the evolution of a million-planet galactic population 1000 years into the future? You don’t need mind control to poke a hole in that, lol.