If You Thought Studying History Was Bad, This Math Professor Is Making It Harder 75
Raven writes:
New research out of Streeling University aims to make planning for the future much easier. The work, led by professor Seldon, tries to set probabilistic values on future events, and then weigh those probabilities against each other to figure out what combination of events is most likely to happen. Describing it under the unlikely moniker "psychohistory," Seldon seems to think planning even 10,000 years into the future might be possible. (Seldon also seems to be a bit of a doomsayer, so this is likely exaggerated.) Nevertheless, it'll be another tool for government planners to consider when developing new colonies.
now this more like it (Score:5, Insightful)
this is more in the line of a slashdot april fools
Re: now this more like it (Score:1)
Agreed 100%. More posts like this, lads, this is the good stuff.
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Yep...
Besides, don't those idiots know that you can skip the middleman and just ask Daneel [wikipedia.org]?
(just keep an eye on that ugly big-headed freshman over there...)
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That would piss Dors off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D... [wikipedia.org]
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Every now and then a /. thread shows up and completely restores my faith in humanity.
This is not that thread, but it sure beats the usual.
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That one reason alone is why I detest Foundation and Earth and the prequels. It's like all the work and struggles of the two trilogies were meaningless, and the genius of Seldon was reduced to a parlor trick.
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I totally get that POV. I even somewhat agree with it. Sometimes, it's better to just have a character die (or at most become so minor later on that his appearance is little more than a cameo, or a wink/nod to fans.)
It would have been way, way better if Daneel was reduced to some glorified scribe who wrote down history or something minor, and not this 'power-behind-the-throne' thing.
That said, I don't really detest the series that much... Asimov did manage to pull it off IMHO (barely, but still).
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Re:now this more like it (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, at least this one is based on a book (series) rather than movies or TV SciFi
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http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Pink... [wikia.com]
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...which is probably a majority of 'dotters, nowadays.
Re: now this more like it (Score:1)
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Isaac Asimov -- A.C. Clarke wrote "The Sentinel" aka "2001 A Space Odissey"
Ha! (Score:2)
And he had the revelation (Score:1)
While being in sector Wye.
Where is the story? (Score:2)
One link on a wiki about fictional psychohistory? 10000 years into the future is incomprehensible and whoever exists in that time will laugh at us. Just write sci-fi instead.
Re:Where is the story? (Score:5, Funny)
Ah fuck.......leaving slashdot until April2. fuck ^*&((^&*(^*&Y&* SUHRUISHUIPY&Y&*)^6
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heh [sadtrombone.com]
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BAHAHAHA! YES! Finally, a victim!!!
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Ah fuck.......leaving slashdot until April2. fuck ^*&((^&*(^*&Y&* SUHRUISHUIPY&Y&*)^6
That last sound is you being eaten by Mozilla, right?
Or you're fighting a garbage compactor without the help of that #$%^ princess?
Incoming call from Capt. Sheridan?
Make it stop! (Score:1)
Can we please stop with the idiotic stories? One was funny. Two was meh. Three was dumb. At this point it's gone past annoying.
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Wow, Psychohistory is true!
Your response comprises of history on the past articles, the sociology behind those said articles and sequential counting of the articles to supply the mathematical statistics to predict future history!
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It would be tolerable if the jokes were, oh, I don't know... Funny?
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Maybe we can come up with jokes that are less tedious and irritating than a 4 year old telling knock-knock jokes*.
* I didn't come up with this comparison. Someone in another story did. But it very accurately characterizes the "jokes" being posted today.
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Can we please stop with the idiotic stories? One was funny. Two was meh. Three was dumb. At this point it's gone past annoying.
Nah, this one is actually OK. It might even introduce new readers to the original Asimov material. All of us old hats have read it, but the young'uns might not.
Actually, if they could use the joke posts to highlight some lesser known works, that would be ideal.
more academic BS (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just another play for increased grant funding with less oversight. Convenient that the program managers won't be able to evaluate anything until well after the money is spent.
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Perhaps you should read Asimov's Foundation series. :)
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Foundation was one of my favorite books growing up ; )
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well played
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Foundation was one of my favorite books growing up ; )
Anything by Asimov is good, and much is great, and most movies made from his writings suck; and as I noted in another post the best part of some of it is you can take it, rename it, and sell it as a real thing to people.
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next thing you know he will want his own planet to protect against predicted disasters.
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next thing you know he will want his own planet to protect against predicted disasters.
My prediction is that he'll ask for two planets.
Home, home on derange (Score:5, Funny)
A discouraging word.
The best part of this is (Score:2)
We must build (Score:2)
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No, two of them! At opposite ends of the galaxy!
Re:We must build (Score:5, Insightful)
Damnit! You weren't supposed to tell anyone about the second one yet!
(Just great... now we gotta build a third one so that no one... shit! Okay, a four- dammit!)
Re:We must build (Score:4, Funny)
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AF (Score:2)
Not only does a circle have no end, so does the the /. "jokes." This is a good one, though. Why don't they just bring back ZOMG PONIES! and be done with it?
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Throw in building a beowulf cluster running ponies and you might be on to something...
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Sorry. that should be "Beowulf cluster of ponies running Linux". My coffee hasn't kicked in yet...
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Are the ponies powered by hot grits?
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very foundational article (Score:1)
Psh who cares (Score:2)
I already know what's going to happen in the year 2525 and beyond. And, well, the year 9595 doesn't look good. Why bother planning for it.
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Is Man still alive? Has Women survived?
There is but one Galactic Spirit... (Score:1)
What a load of metaphysical crap. (Score:2)
Yea, it sounds good in theory, but only if you assume human nature is determinate. All it would take is a single incident or individual, a mutation perhaps, to totally derail any such prognosis. What are you going to do, hide a secret society of "psyco"-technicians among the populous to try and pull events back on course when the inevitable happens? Please, pull the other one.