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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 Phoenix666 on Tuesday November 19 2019, @05:51PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday November 19 2019, @05:51PM (#922014) Journal

    I would repair a broken sewer in filthy weather if it really needed to be done

    You might if it's yours. What if it's two hours' drive away in Queens, where only brutes and Philistines live? I'm guessing you'd opt to stay home in bed with your snookums 100% of the time.

    when something needs to be done on a regular basis, an expert is tasked with doing the job. The community recognises the need for the job to be done and bands together to pay the person doing the job.

    You mean like happens in our lovely democracies where the KGB doesn't also show up and abduct my spouse in the middle of the night? Yeah, I think we have that covered; also, the people who get paid to fix our systems get pensions & benefits too. Yep, no need for socialism here, but thanks.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
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