"Homo Sol"

I'm still making my way through The Early Asimov...a collection of Isaac Asimov's earliest stories, most of which had not been reprinted prior to this collection. It's a fun book. In part because the stories, most of them published between 1939 and 1942, are on the innocent and naive side, qualities often found in science fiction of that era. I read this book previously, but so long ago...about 50 years...that I haven't got even the slightest memory of any of the stories. 

The book is even more enjoyable because wrapped around each story are Asimov's comments about the writing of it, often the rejecting of it, and some bits of autobiography connected to the time of the writing. It's a fun book, and highly recommended reading.

I've just finished the 9th story, "Homo Sol," written when he was just 19 years old. It was first published in the September, 1940 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and was the second story that John W. Campbell had accepted from Asimov. (Campbell had rejected 15 stories prior to accepting this one.) It was also the 19th story that Asimov had written *, and the first time he made mention of what would later come to be known as Psychohistory ...which is the cornerstone of the whole Foundation universe.

In brief, Psychohistory is the processing of psychological and sociological data via mathematical formulae in order to be able to predict future events with respect to large masses of people. (We are repeatedly told that it cannot be used to predict the actions of a single individual or a small group.) 

"Homo Sol" is focused on a group of "alien" psychologists who are working to extend an invitation to join the Galactic Federation to Earth-wo/men. It becomes a bit problematic for reasons which shall not be named, thus preserving the sanctity of the plot for you to enjoy. Tensions mount, and at one point one of the lead characters, Tan Porus, berates someone who disagrees with his conclusions about the Earthlings by saying, "You still don't believe mathematics." There had been previous references to the use of mathematics, but they kind of sailed past me. When I read this line, though, I immediately realized that this was Isaac Asimov's first Psychohistory story.

And once I started poking around on the internet, it became clear that I was not the only one who thought so. In fact, the Wikipedia entry for "Homo Sol" states, "'Homo Sol' also first mentioned the concept of psychology being developed into a mathematically rigorous science, an idea he called psychohistory in his Foundation stories." 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Sol)

So there you have it. First there was the mention of the planet Trantor (in "Black Friar of the Flame," the 13th story Asimov wrote), and now there's Psychohistory. And it wouldn't be that much longer until the first Foundation story: "Foundation," which was the 36th story Asimov wrote, and was published in Astounding Science Fiction, May 1942. 

And since Forward the Foundation was one of the last books Asimov wrote (published posthumously in 1993), you can see that Foundation was pretty much with him for his whole life.

* As for these numbers: of the 18 stories which Asimov had written prior to "Homo Sol," 8 are published in The Early Asimov (hence it being the 9th story in this collection), two were published in other collections, and 8 were lost 😢.