Can understanding the past help us navigate our uncertain future?

Societal Dynamics is dedicated to translating expert historical knowledge into actionable insights and scenario-exploration tools. Powered by the unique collection of knowledge about our shared past compiled by the Seshat Databank, we seek to assess the likely pathways that future crises are likely to take and to explore the possible outcomes of various proposed interventions.

Daniel Hoyer is a computational historian and social scientist. He holds a PhD in Classics from New York University. Since 2014 he has been a part of Seshat: Global History Databank, a multidisciplinary project examining long-run social dynamics by combining qualitative and empirical information about the past with advanced quantitative analysis and computer modelling. His research seeks to understand societal responses to shifting ecological, social, and economic contexts that determine well-being outcomes in the past, as well as how this understanding may shed light on critical social pressures today. He is Director of Societal Dynamics, a research enterprise dedicated to translating expert historical knowledge into actionable insights and scenario-exploration tools in order to assess the likely pathways that future crises are likely to take and to explore the possible outcomes of various proposed interventions.