The Future is Here

Once Google became a daily and unconscious part of the day, I started getting the feeling that somehow it would be possible for search results to show, well, results…of things that had not yet happened. Ridiculous, no? Maybe not so much. Google (and a little outfit called the CIA) have invested in Recorded Future (Orwellian by way of Disraeli motto: “What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.”).

Recorded Future is a search engine (it seems to prefer to call itself a “temporal analytics engine”) with three boxes: What, Who/Where and When. The “When” is where things get interesting. Instead of the usual search field date restriction of the present, the “When” goes boldly into the future to scan everything from Twitter feeds to government documents to map patterns and forecast an outcome.

As you may have already predicted, the future isn’t free (it’s $149 a month).


3 Responses to “The Future is Here”

  1. Christopher Hart says:

    I just used that site and it told me I was going to make a comment post on this site and it worked.

  2. Jim D. says:

    Is it me, or is this creepy? I’m afraid to to sign in and read my obituary. (There is a limited, free option, I see. I may try it out later and shield my eyes.)

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