Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy
I agree the Foundation Trilogy is important for any science fiction fan to understand because its one of the classic works everyone has read. To miss it is to miss out on that common experience that makes us part of a community.<p>On the other hand, I found reading it as a child in the 80s a great disappointment. At the time I was learning about chaos theory and the butterfly effect. It was painfully obvious to me that the Seldon theory of psychohistory was impossibly simplistic. Human society and culture is just too unstable and susceptible to disruption for long term predictions of the kind the plot relies on to be viable.<p>Yet despite that, it's still a worthwhile story with valuable lessons. Asimov realised that random events could disrupt the predictions of any system like psychohistory. The way I read it now, I don't think Asimov necesserily believed something like psychohistory was possible, instead he was positing a classic SF 'what if'. The point is that even if long term predictions like those of psychohistory were possible, there a still random events such as mutation that are outside the scope of any deterministic system that can derail it.