It’s a fascinating idea. That human beings are inherently sensitive to future trends, and drop hints about what is coming our way through their everyday internet activity. What if you were smart enough to send out internet software spiders programed to harvest emergent memes, and then attempted to interpret the results from a global perspective? Would it be a techo crystal ball and allow you to look into the future? That’s the question being explored by Cliff High over at
www.halfpasthuman.com, a brilliant experiment in tracking future trends through human casual conversation.
Cliff wryly notes that his intention in developing this software technology was originally to look for a way to predict stock market trends and make a little money. But he says he soon became entranced in the potential of how vast amounts of data could be organized into various meaningful domains or “entities”: areas of common interest which he labeled “Markets”, “Populace/USofA”, “GlobalPop”, “TPTB” (The Powers That Be) and even a mysterious segment of UFO/ET or space-based influences named the delightful “SpaceGoatFarts”. Awesome.
If you are curious about predictive linguistics you can find Cliff giving interviews on several internet radio shows this year, such as Coast to Coast AM, and the latest Journeys with Rebecca (Nov 15, 2008). You can also subscribe to the ALTA reports on Cliff’s web site. What to take away from all of this? Probably it is time to really pay attention to what is barreling down on the US of A this Winter: a huge financial meltdown that will prove immune to President Obama’s charismatic smile.
Hi, Dean, you say: prepare! But not much details…I really wonder how one prepares for such a situation.
Some years ago, when I was very angry at my husband who took my 3mio USD and invested it into a venture I did not want to (the money was eventually lost), an old man counseled me not to fight about money, that a time will come when money shall have no value whatsoever. Well, it seems the time is near.
When I think of how the economic situation of the US has affected the entire world and especially Africa and Nigeria in particular, we here have really something to worry about. We are presently in a very big crunch here and the massive poverty is increasing by the day. What I am hearing is a collapse may come before we have a respite. I see rich people here moving into poverty. It is terrible.
How to prepare. both in the physical and the non-physical world?
Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i religion, predicted about 150 years ago the coming of a world currency, a world language and a world government. Also that capitalism will crumble and disappear just like the wall that will be built and will crumble (Berlin), and a new system will emerge out of it.