Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Copernican Principle Calculator

Have you ever wondered how long humanity will survive? Or how long your neighbor will wait to cut the grass in the front yard? Or how long Kim Kardashian will remain married to Kanye West? Well, there is an app for that. Okay, maybe not an app just yet (maybe coming soon?). But you can navigate over to my new "Copernican Principle Calculator" and find out how long anything will last. I didn't invent the technique. You can read all about the history of the Copernican Principle elsewhere. However, I do create this little calculator, which applies the technique to predict the minimum and maximum time you can expect something -- anything -- to last. All you need to know is how long it has existed so far. Predict how long your current romantic relationship will last! Or how long you'll keep driving that old car! See what you can discover. For a great, detailed discussion of how the Copernican Principle can be used, read this 2018 article by Will Koehrsen.