Voyage to the Stars

And what we're trying to inspire with the 100-Year Starship Study is that first step in establishing a bar that's high enough, with challenges that are hard enough that people will actually go start tackling some of these really hard problems."

Reach for the Stars

"Psychohistory" Forecasts Near Future Events

"The emerging field of “Culturomics” seeks to explore broad cultural trends through the computerized analysis of vast digital book archives, offering novel insights into the functioning of human society."

"The paper, titled “Culturomics 2.0: Forecasting Large-Scale Human Behavior Using Global News Media Tone in Time and Space,” uses the tone and location of news coverage from across the world to forecast country stability (including retroactively predicting the recent Arab Spring), estimate Osama Bin Laden’s final location as a 200-kilometer radius around Abbottabad, and uncover the six world civilizations of the global news media. The research also demonstrates that the news is indeed becoming more negative and even visualizes global human societal conflict and cooperation over the last quarter century.

It seems like a real attempt at psychohistory from Isaac Asimov's Foundation series of novels. Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire."

For  decades, scientists, intellectuals and even Asimov himself didn't take the concept of psychohistory very seriously except for its use in science fiction master works. However, the concept persisted and apparently there is a legitimate social science called psychohistory which has nothing to do with the psychohistory that Asimov's Hari Seldon developed in the far future Foundation series. However, as the article and the websites that are giving serious attention to Culturomics indicate, a real life discipline somewhat similar in its intent to that of psychohistory is now in existence. Asimov can properly take his place among other visionaries, e.g., Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, among those whose Science Fiction visions influenced future science and/or the Social Sciences.

Culturomics 2.0: Forecasting Large-Scale Human Behavior Using Global News Media Tone in Time and Space

Secrets of Longevity

Miracles have been occurring for millennia. Evolution is one of the greatest miracles and mysteries of all. Since a second is as a thousand years to God might not an hour be as a million years. What if a million years hence by the grace of God humans with their God-given intelligence figure out how to progressively boost their longevity and one day turn off the aging of cells entirely?

If a tortoise can live to be 255 could not scientists find how to produce that longevity in humans? [*]

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* 255 year-old tortoises

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"New" Beatles albums produced at MIT

Perhaps a computer program will be developed that can generate fascinating works of literature or music based on post humous artistic developments close to the artist's death, biographical data, critics' research and the artist's complete body of work to produce near-believable literature or music for fans, old and new.

Previously unmaginable works might result, e.g., Mozart's 50th symphony and original 1970s Beatles' albums. Imagine a completely new string of hits challenging the Rolling Stones' "Miss You" or Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall' for the top of the charts or radio airplay.

The above scenario is based on the following idea alluded to in the article below [*]
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* Mr. Hammond cited a media maven's prediction that a computer program might win a Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 20 years - and he begged to differ."

Please consult "Computer-generated articles are gaining traction:"

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=839559&f=24

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Ingenious Scientific Means of Spreading Life Beyond Earth

Dr. Venter advertised his genome as the wave of future migration to the stars. Send a kit of chemicals and a digitized genome across space."

In context:

In "A Romp Through Theories on Origins of Life" 2-21-2011:

"Using mail-order snippets of DNA, Dr Venter and his colleagues stitched together the million-letter genetic code of a bacterium of a goat parasite last year and inserted it into another bacterium's cell, where it took over, churning out blue-stained copies of itself. Dr. Venter advertised his genome as the wave of future migration to the stars. Send a kit of chemicals and a digitized genome across space." [1]

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[1] A Romp Through Theories on Origins of Life