Monday, April 11, 2005

Popularity of using "in five years" to predict near-magic technology

"Why is this story not the biggest story in the media right now??!!?? (Cure for Cancer Within Five Years) Surely the best news of the millenium so far. A cure for cancer! all cancer! Posted as a side article on bbc news april 8th.

Whenever I read an article about a cure for peanut allergies (my daughter has a life threatening nut allergy), the articles always quote some researcher as saying it'll happen "in five years."

Curious about the popularity of "in five years," I googled the following terms:

"in two years" -- 1,320,000 results

"in five years" -- 1,420,000

...

"in a trillion years" -- 933

"in a quadrillion years" -- 51

"in a googol years" -- 38

"in a googolplex years" -- 2

"never" -- 296,000,000

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