Cell Phones Predict the Future

An anonymous reader writes "Wired News reports that cell phones were used in a recent project at MIT to both document and predict the lives of 100 MIT faculty and staff members. During the Reality Mining Project at MIT, Researcher Nathan Eagle logged 350,000 hours of data over nine months about the location, proximity, activity and communication of volunteers through cell phones carried by the participants. From the article, "Given enough data, Eagle's algorithms were able to predict what people -- especially professors and Media Lab employees -- would do next and be right up to 85 percent of the time."

Comments

Real-world example

[goldspider]

I have cable. My friend has satellite.

We'll be on the phone, both watching the same football game, and from his point of view, I can predict every play call and every score. It's incredible! I exclaim "TOUCHDOWN EAGLES!" a full seven seconds before it even happens!

I think I'm going to start charging money for these predictions. All thanks to my cell phone!