Living Earth Simulator Aims To Simulate Everything 241
H3xx writes "An international group of scientists is aiming to create a simulator — nicknamed The Living Earth Simulator — that will collect data from billions of sources and use it to replicate everything happening on Earth, from global weather patterns and the spread of diseases to international financial transactions or congestion on highways. The project aims to advance the scientific understanding of what is taking place on the planet, encapsulating the human actions that shape societies and the environmental forces that define the physical world. Perhaps this is Asimov's concept of Psychohistory come to fruition."
Re:Let me guess.... (Score:2, Insightful)
Recession is too profitable to be ever allowed to end. You can keep on asking and receiving public financial support, then turn around and loan the public's money back to them at interest, setting them up for a lifetime of debt slavery.
Capitalism for the poor, socialism for the rich. Isn't global economy fun ?-)
Re:Everything? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:more (Score:4, Insightful)
But, it'll simulate everything, then it will also simulate itself, running the simulation, and so on. Looks like a recursive simulation :)
Uncertainty Reigns (Score:4, Insightful)
The big problem with this is that most of the world's and humanity's interesting systems are chaotic. You may get lucky and find an attractor or two.
In any case, simulation can show you plausible futures, but they'll have no predictive value. The outputs will be little more than cybernetic speculative fiction.
On the other hand, there's no explaining chaos to a politician, or to a scientist who believes that more data and higher resolution are all that's needed to clear up the confusion; the grant money will keep flowing.