pplapi — A virtual database of the entire human population 👥

@sridhar_kondoji It's simulated data based on some form of population demographics predictons. They're not real people. Reminds me a bit of Harin Seldon's psychohistory in Asimov's Foundation series.

@joostschuur @sridhar_kondoji I think it is sortof like a building block of Seldon's psychohistory, yes

@steerj92 that internet access figure will be an interesting one to watch over the coming years... Presently, the majority have no access. It really does recalibrate your perception to click through a few random agents.

@iandennismiller Yes, you're right. Good luck with the research and thanks for making a great product

@huangdun I wrote an algorithm for that but it's not publicly visible because it is resource intensive. I found myself in the data at one point last year, but then I made a change to the database, lost myself, and didn't want to search again!

@jonslimak The data are not random; they are much more similar to a monte carlo simulation.

@rrhoover Super interesting. Did a bit of research -- Apparently it's this PhD candidate's project... http://imiller.utsc.utoronto.ca/

@srcasm nice find! Adding @iandennismiller as the maker.

@rrhoover reality is stranger than fiction

@double_are That's part of the idea! This is an active research project, so you've got to be careful with the sorts of questions you ask using pplapi. However, for quickly experimenting, I think pplapi fills an interesting space.

@gertjeza maybe u r doing smth wrong in life? 😂

@ggnall I think it's better: these simulated people are plausible, at least in aggregate. It's like lorem ipsum insofar as these data can serve as a "placeholder" but goes farther by also being inherently interesting data (for certain questions), whereas lorem ipsum might as well be gibberish.

@peranadj maybe that kid is selling hustling the rarest Charizard and Mew Mew collectibles. 🤔

@rrhoover @peranadj Maybe he's a follower of Gary Vaynerchuk

@peranadj I found a 1 year old girl with an income of $61471

@svenvd_zee @peranadj not too many legit, not-creative-tax-sheltering reasons for that... what we might be looking at is child models/actors. So bless those children now because most don't turn out moguls like Mary Kate and Ashley! :/

@peranadj heh - maybe it's possible, but I think it's unlikely that any such 6-year-old exists. Right now, the database has many instances of implausible people, but this number will be reduced with time.

@itsnblackburn it would be impossible for me to leave this comment without internet. That info is also incorrect.

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@shimmb it is synthetic, which is to say that I am generating it algorithmically, and those algorithms are informed by demographic data (i.e. raw data about the world). There is a plugin system for incorporating various raw data sources and models that feed the algorithms.

@skunkwerk no, you'll need an agent modelling environment for that. There are several examples in the pplapi documentation, but a few names are NetLogo and MASON.

@jonathanmarvens it's possible. This is also an ongoing research project for my PhD, so I have no monetization in place. In reality, it would likely be a consulting arrangement rather than pay-for-data, but I'm happy to discuss serious inquiries.