Amazon predicts what you want to buy, political pundits predict who you’ll vote for, search engines predict what you’re looking for. And now researchers and social scientists are looking to similar techniques to predict mass violence and atrocities like war, civil unrest, and genocide. The “GDELT” Project (Global Database of Events, Language and Tone), created at Georgetown University, is updated every morning and catalogs more than a quarter billion event records from across the globe since 1979. The hope is that by mapping and tracking human societal-scale behaviors and beliefs we can learn from the past and better forecast the future. How accurately and how soon will we be able to predict coming episodes of mass violence? Probably not for a while, but thank goodness there are people trying.
In Future, Data May Help Predict Even Wars
Amazon predicts what you want to buy, political pundits predict who you’ll vote for, search engines predict what you’re looking for. And now researchers and social scientists are looking to similar techniques to predict mass violence and atrocities like war, civil unrest, and genocide. The “GDELT” Project (Global Database of Events, Language and Tone), created at Georgetown University, is updated every morning and catalogs more than a quarter billion event records from across the globe since 1979. The hope is that by mapping and tracking human societal-scale behaviors and beliefs we can learn from the past and better forecast the future.
By Simone Ross
Co-founder and Chief Program Officer, Techonomy
Simone oversees the programs for Techonomy, as she has since its founding, and serves as executive producer for all Techonomy events. Prior to Techonomy, she was program director for Fortune’s conference division, responsible programming the Fortune Global Forum, Fortune 500 Forum, Most Powerful Women Summit, iMeme, and Brainstorm. Before joining Fortune, she was director of operations at the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards and a strategic communications consultant.
Why I Am a Techonomist?
“A Techonomist since my days at Computerworld Smithsonian Awards, I’ve been an inquisitive observer of the companies, individuals, and ideas at the intersection of tech, the economy and society. I’ve worked with IT innovators and leaders to create programs and contexts that meet the exacting intellectual, practical and inquisitive requirements of leaders across industries, function, and titles. It’s not so much the bells and whistles of tech itself that interest me. It’s the application of that tech for productivity and progress that excites me and makes me a Techonomist.”
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