Web Bot
Web Bot is an internet bot computer program whose developers claim is able to predict future events by
tracking keywords entered on the internet. It was developed in 1997, originally to predict stock market
trends.[1] The creator of the Web Bot Project, Clif High, along with his associate George Ure, keep the
technology and algorithms largely secret and sell the predictions via the website.
Methodology
Internet bots monitor news articles, blogs, forums, and other forms of Internet chatter. Words in the lexicon
are assigned numeric values for emotional quantifiers such as duration, impact, immediacy, intensity, and
others. The lexicon is dynamic, and changes according to shifts in emotional tension, and how humans
communicate those changes using the Internet. As of 2008, there were about 300,000 keywords in the
lexicon, along with emotional context,[2] which are fed into a computer-generated modelspace.
The operators of Web Bot interpret the bot's results and make a report called the "ALTA report" available
on their website to paying subscribers. ALTA stands for "asymmetric language trend analysis".[3] Many
believe the predictions are pseudoscientific and too vague to be meaningful.[4] Despite this, the creators
have made many claims after the fact that their reports have predicted important events.
Predictions
Claimed hits
Northeast Blackout of 2003[5]
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake[5][6]
Hurricane Katrina and its devastation[5][7]
Misses
The Web Bot gained most of its notoriety for contributing to the 2012 phenomenon by
predicting a cataclysm that would devastate the planet on 21 December 2012, possibly a
reversing of Earth's magnetic poles or a small series of nuclear attacks leading up to a major
attack during the year. The prediction did not call for a complete end of the world.[8][9]
Web Bot predicted that a massive earthquake would occur in December 2008 in Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada and the Pacific Northwest, but no such event happened.[10]
A prediction that the US dollar would completely collapse in 2011, and that Israel would
bomb Iran, with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama being thrown into major
chaos.[11]
Reception
The History Channel has discussed Web Bot in its special "Doomsday 2012: The End of Days" on season
3 of Decoding The Past and on other shows that feature predictions about the end of the world, such as the
Nostradamus Effect.[12] A The Globe and Mail journalist noted that
What interests me more than the bot's accuracy (of which I'm skeptical), is the relentless
negativity of its projections. According to the bot, the future is always bleak and steadily
worsening.[10]
Tom Chivers in the Daily Telegraph notes three criticisms of the project:
the internet might plausibly reveal group knowledge about the stock market or, conceivably,
terror attacks [but] it would be no more capable of predicting a natural disaster than would a
Google search, ... the predictions are so vague as to be meaningless, [and] the prophecies
become self-distorting.[1]
See also
Global Consciousness Project
Google Flu Trends
Google Trends
Predictive analytics
References
1. Chivers, Tom (24 September 2009). " 'Web-bot project' makes prophecy of 2012
apocalypse" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6227357/Web-bot-project-makes
-prophecy-of-2012-apocalypse.html). The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 4 October
2009.
2. Shamah, David (23 December 2008). "Digital World: I have seen the future, and it's on the
Web" (http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/InternetAndTechnology/Article.aspx?id=125
783). The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
3. "ALTA Process" (http://www.halfpasthuman.com/altaprocess.html). Half Past Human:
Adventures in Future Viewing. 8 May 2011. Retrieved 10 April 2016.
4. "Web Bot, What is it? Can it Predict Stuff?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091012193312/ht
tp://www.dailycommonsense.com/web-bot-what-is-it-can-it-predict-stuff/). Daily Common
Sense. Archived from the original (http://www.dailycommonsense.com/web-bot-what-is-it-ca
n-it-predict-stuff/) on 12 October 2009.
5. Menon, Vinay (16 April 2008). "Decoding the End of Days" (https://www.thestar.com/entertai
nment/Television/article/414923). Toronto Star. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
6. "World's expiry date: 21 December 2012?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090928052351/ht
tp://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-118770.html). NewKerala.com. Archived from the
original (http://www.newkerala.com/nkfullnews-1-118770.html) on 28 September 2009.
Retrieved 3 October 2009.
7. " 'Web-bot project' makes prophecy of 2012 apocalypse" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091
119080609/http://www.ethiopianreview.com/scitech/12308). Ethiopian Review. Archived
from the original (http://www.ethiopianreview.com/scitech/12308) on 19 November 2009.
Retrieved 4 October 2009.
8. "World's expiry date: 21 December 2012?" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100329041221/ht
tp://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Worlds-expiry-date-21-December-2012/521526/).
ExpressIndia. Archived from the original (http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Worlds-e
xpiry-date-21-December-2012/521526/) on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 3 October 2009.
9. "El Nostradamus virtual (in Spanish)" (http://www.eldia.com.ar/edis/20080427/revistadoming
o15.htm). El Día. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
10. Taylor, Timothy (January 2009). "Vanwaterworld? Hold the Armageddon talk" (https://web.arc
hive.org/web/20100329060911/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article651047.ece).
The Globe and Mail. Canada. Archived from the original (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/l
ife/article651047.ece) on 29 March 2010. Retrieved 4 October 2009.
11. "The Market's Current Psychological Map" (https://seekingalpha.com/article/167241-the-mar
ket-s-current-psychological-map). Seeking Alpha. 19 October 2009. Retrieved 25 October
2009.
12. "History TV Shows" (http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detail&episodeId=396904).
History.com. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
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