[DeaExMachina]

I am posting this to see if anyone else had heard of something like it.

I’ve been studying human behavior informally for about 15 to 20 years. About 9 years ago when I reached college and came to enjoy algebra, I could see people behaving in common patterns and came to the conclusion that human behavior was somewhat algebraic. Now in my thirties, I’ve come up with this thing I call “Human Society Behavior Dynamics Algebra”. Essentially the idea is that human behavior on the societal level can be predicted and/or manipulated once the behavior pattern contained in historical records is adequately understood. Just like numerical algebra, you could take what has happened in the near past and calculate the approximate outcome of the near future. You could also start with a future and your present and calculate what approximate events and decisions need to occur to reach the desired future.

Of course the entirety of human history is too large for the human mind to contain and process, but a supercomputer could. I could see such a computer being a pivotal part in guiding a Technocratic Government. I see government decision makers comparing and debating computer projections and recommendations.

I would be interested in seeing any websites on this subject matter or just your thoughts on it.

[Russkie]

the fastest super computer we have is still pretty slow compared to the human brain...

[DeaExMachina]

I would be interested to hear how far you have taken this idea of yours, such as what variables you would use, and what formulae.

I don't think the numerical algebra translates well into this field. Instead of numbers, you would need symbols to represent quantified elements of human society. I figured these would be grouped in boxes. Then instead of the numerical process symbols (+-*/ ect.) you would need new symbols to represent processes. There would likely be dozens of processes instead of the six or so numerical algera has. I was thinking of using Chinese characters because there are some 7,000 of them and a single character can represent an entire concept. My training has been in the technical field rather than humanities, so to create an effective formula I would need to take courses on human behavior, history, and marketing.

Although the overall capacity of the human mind does radically outstrip the preformance of a computer, computers do radically outstrip the human mind in certain capacities. One of those capacities is the ability to calculate the effects of bucketloads of interelating quantities and variables and presenting the results in a useful manner.

To make a Technocracy come about I suspect you would need something like this to convince people that Technocracy at least might work. You would need to successfully predict and maybe even profit from it, so you have something to back up your marketing skills when trying to convert people. I suspect this would also be a good tool to refine the Technocratic model with.

I will have to read the Foundation series. I've heard of it, but its one set of works of his that I haven't read.