The world of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation is incredible. He made predictions that, at first glance, seems very off and unlikely. But when you start to notice the bigger picture, you realize how these predictions are built on a foundation that is now real and solid.
The fact that the universe depicted is so futuristic and so connected to today’s reality fascinates me. Isaac Asimov is a tremendous thinker, I admire all his work and his astounding long term thinking capabilities, he is a true genius.
Portable nuclear energy, memory degradation, using data to predict actions, the role of religion, economy and knowledge…. It feels so fiction and so real at the same time.
At first sight, this is probably unrelated to software engineering and programming. But when you look closer, Foundation is actually a great source of insights that we can apply as developers.
This book is an incredible opportunity to learn, it’s like you traveled to the future and then came back to the present with precious knowledge.
Research and development
Energy is an important part of the story, like many other elements, it is a fundamental resource for the success of the civilization. Foundation specifically talks about nuclear energy, but it’s totally different from what we have today.
Thanks to research and development, nuclear reactors will be small, efficient and portable. And because of that, all electronic appliances will embed them as the main source of power. We will see nuclear washing machines, nuclear ovens, nuclear fridges….
Continuous improvements transforms the products as they become better and better. The key takeaway here is to think about what it could be and not on what it is.
This fits well with the current blockchain/cryptocurrency situation. Right now it is still unstable, slow and inefficient. If the fundamentals are solid, only research and development will affine this raw technology and turn it to what we initially envisioned. So, in order to succeed we just need 3 things. A great and solid idea, optimisms and time.
Preserving knowledge
When they say “knowledge is power”, it really is. Isaac Asimov shows us how knowledge can be used to maintain or create power. It also tells us the importance of not loosing it, not forgetting it.
A lack of documentation and history preservation can completely erase our knowledge. What was once common sense and taken for granted, will become myth and mystical magic, a legend.
That’s why writing software documentation is important. Our superpower, as humans, is working together. If we want to continue doing this, we must keep track of our knowledge, even if it seems so trivial and dumb. It’s like a long term investment, it will help in the future.
Data science
Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people.
For me, this is the biggest and most fascinating “prediction” of Isaac. He maybe went even a bit conservative. Making predictions with AI and statistical models is now the hottest theme in tech. Right now as I’m writing, we’re probably using this “science”. I think that marketing will be the one that becomes psychohistory. We now use data, statistics, sociology and psychology to create ad copies, drive people choices and predict market (large group of people) outcomes.
Again, the key takeaway here is that collecting and using data gives power. This data has to be stored and kept for the future. Any type of information will become, someday, valuable.
That's why collecting logs & crashes, monitoring usage and user behavior (possibly anonymous) is important to keep going in the right direction. Without this type of data, it's almost impossible to know where to focus our development and improve the product.
The butterfly effect
This is the point that may summarize the entire book. There are a lot of huge time skips in Foundation, and this makes centuries feel like days. You become aware of how little things become big and how important stuff becomes irrelevant.
This is the power of the butterfly effect. If you see your choices in this perspective, you will see that anything can happen. What sticks longer are the first principles, the foundations.
That’s why I consider these two mental models (long term and first principle thinking) very powerful during decision making.
Little choices at the beginning of our development journey can become strong blockers or incredible features. It's safer to work in "cycles" to make better decisions (TDD, Agile, ...).
Conclusion
Isaac Asimov is a genius. He came up with these concepts and ideas in 1942, more than 75 years ago! It's really fascinating to understand how concepts and best practices that we use every day to develop software were already forged almost a century ago.
Before watching the Apple TV series, I urge you to read the original Foundation books. They better explore all the connections, implications, causes and effects. I hope this 80-year-old science fiction universe brings you knowledge and wisdom.
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