I have spent over thirty years looking into the problem of Asimov's Psychohistory. This was not all too easy. There were numerous problems that I encountered along the way. The first and foremost was getting over the notion of Psychohistory as a "science." I have come to the view that looking from a scientific view simply didn't work. The reason it didn't work is that it is the wrong way of looking at it. What has become my view of it is through the view of an engineering discipline, and specifically a problem of system engineering. Once I saw it as an engineering problem it started to come together.

As in any "engineering approach," the first question should be "what problem is to be solved?" Another way of stating this question is "what goal is to be achieved?" The first question's answer is an understanding of human society, how it works the way it does. The second question is simple: we are trying to develop a better condition for the human race. The betterment of the human condition lies beneath the surface of Asimov's writting. This betterment takes the form, in Asimov's books, as a reduction in the time of turmoil following a major upheaval of political and social organization. A clear view of what is to be done is a beginning to doing it.