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posted by Fnord666 on Monday November 18 2019, @11:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the Wait-long-enough-and-sc-fi-always-becomes-sci-fact dept.

In 1951 Isaac Asimov inflicted psychohistory on the world with the Foundation Trilogy. Now, thanks to data sets going back more than 2,500 years, scientists have discovered the rules underlying the rise and fall of civilizations, after examining more than 400 such historical societies crash and burn - or in some cases avoid crashing. More here:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/12/history-as-a-giant-data-set-how-analysing-the-past-could-help-save-the-future

Turchin's approach to history, which uses software to find patterns in massive amounts of historical data, has only become possible recently, thanks to the growth in cheap computing power and the development of large historical datasets. This "big data" approach is now becoming increasingly popular in historical disciplines. Tim Kohler, an archaeologist at Washington State University, believes we are living through "the glory days" of his field, because scholars can pool their research findings with unprecedented ease and extract real knowledge from them. In the future, Turchin believes, historical theories will be tested against large databases, and the ones that do not fit – many of them long-cherished – will be discarded. Our understanding of the past will converge on something approaching an objective truth.

Discuss. Or throw rocks.


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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 18 2019, @03:37PM

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday November 18 2019, @03:37PM (#921534)

    In the Foundation universe, there might be enough data to start a successful mathematical analysis and prediction.

    In Sol-Earth N of 1? With today's recently globalized all-connected society, first ever in known history to have instant communication? Please introduce me to the people who are funding this data analysis project, they seem... overly trusting.

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