Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.

Nils Bohr

Can we predict the future of humankind in the same way that we forecast the weather?

In an article published in The Guardian, the journalist Laura Spinney discusses how historical data could be used, not only to predict the future of humankind but to save it as well. The piece titled “History as a giant data set: how analysing the past could help save the future” discussed how a small group of academics had come up with the notion that the analysis of historical big-data could be used in useful ways for the common good. At least that was my initial takeaway.

The estate