Popularity of using "in five years" to predict near-magic technology Boing Boing: Popularity of using "in five years" to predict near-magic technology
Monday, April 11, 2005
Popularity of using "in five years" to predict near-magic technology
sebb says: "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 ten years" -- 584,000
"in fifteen years" -- 59,000
"in twenty years" -- 176,000
"in fifty years" -- 74,300
"in a hundred years" -- 77,500
"in a thousand years" -- 56,300
"in ten thousand years" -- 3,370 (first hit is Cory!)
"in a hundred thousand years" -- 828
"in a million years" -- 202,000
"in a billion years" -- 5,410
"in a trillion years" -- 933
"in a quadrillion years" -- 51
"in a googol years" -- 38
"in a googolplex years" -- 2
"never" -- 296,000,000

"Never" wins by a huge margin, but "in five years" comes in second.

UPDATE: "in one year" barely beats "in five years" -- 1,490,000  ¶ 10:25 PM