As (not yet) seen in: Foundation

What’s The Science? Isaac Asimov invented 'psychohistory' in his Foundation series, describing it as a mathematical model capable of predicting the course of human civilisation. While not able to predict the actions of individual human beings, it could predict big events – in particular, the downfall of a galactic empire into millennia of barbarism. The creation of the Foundation was designed to safeguard civilisation during this time and shorten the interregnum. But enough sci-fi! Back here in the real world, the Nautilus SGI supercomputer crunched 100 million news articles, analysing mood and location to assess events worldwide, and is said to have predicted the Arab Spring and even picked up clues to Osama Bin Laden’s hiding place better than US government intelligence. Read more here, via this link

So how long until we see practical results? So far, the analysis has been used retroactively and has picked up on events on such a large scale that it is sometimes indistinct. It will take a while, and more supercomputer time, to see if it can spot things reliably in advance and prove its real-world usefulness. Once it can ferret out a country’s mood reliably and bring us news of big changes, all it needs is a taste for martinis and an insatiable libido and we can retire James Bond for good.

Which films might this change? You could build any number of political thrillers around it and lots of scary, oppressive government dystopias. And hey! If the oft-mooted Foundation film ever happens, it could even be set more-or-less in the present day instead of in a future galactic civilisation. Last we heard, in 2009, Roland Emmerich had it; let’s hope he’s paying attention.