Bold predictions are made every day. We'll reduce our carbon emissions by 50% in 20 years, boast business leaders. No, make that 80% in 15 years. We'll cut the deficit in half by 2015, pandering politicians claim. That leaves us with dozens of conflicting estimates and ballpark figures that are soon forgotten. It's hard to hold experts to their predictions, but that could all change soon thanks to an experimental search engine from Yahoo.

Developed by the company's Barcelona research lab, Time Explorer is a search engine for the past, present, and future. Results are displayed on a timeline that stretches years back and forward. Move your mouse over the future part of the timeline, and you get predictions for what was supposed to happen in that year from as much as 20 years ago. For example, the timeline for "North Korea" lets us know that the rogue state should have developed some 200 nuclear warheads--according to an inaccurate op-ed in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof in 2004.

Muy interesante ver como está evolucionando el conocimiento humano en la era digital. Ahora se trata del prototipo de "Time Explorer" de Yahoo, que forma parte de megaproyecto "Living Knowledge". Siguiendo con las reflexiones del artículo "Wikinomics, esto no es una crisis", ahora me encuentro con esta especie de "oráculo" para periodistas e investigadores. ¿No les inquieta todo esto de la nueva era digital? ¿Cómo lo vivirán nuestros hijos cibernéticos?

Esto es un extracto de un artículo que pueden leer completo aquí.