<p>Brian Clegg was always fascinated by Isaac Asimov's classic Foundation series of books, in which the future is predicted using sophisticated mathematical modelling of human psychology and behaviour.<br><br>Only much later did he realise that Asimov's 'psychohistory' had a real-world equivalent: game theory.<br><br>Originating in the study of probabilistic gambling games that depend on a random source - the throw of a dice o...