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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:
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @07:02PM (1 child)
mostly agree. but there are also many "cave paintings" in modern prison ... and lots of idyl times.
archeology is history without books?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday November 18 2019, @10:04PM
In many ways, modern prisoners are both more comfortable and powerful than Kings of ancient times, to say nothing of neolithic man - they may not (or in rare cases may) command armies, but they have superior medical care, more reliably safe and nutritious food, up to the minute information from around the globe, the (intermittent) ability to communicate globally instantly, relative safety, and... lots of time on their hands.
In a way, it's also a study of the random - things that were usually accidentally preserved, although the great Kings and wealthy did often leave more enduring archaeological artifacts than the common man, whether written or not.
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