But amid such great advances in technology and understanding it will be comfort to some that the number-crunchers don't quite yet have all the answers.
If the number-crunchers can persuade governments to recognise that there is a statistical rhythm to violence, their argument goes, countries might be able to mobilise resources in preparation.
Of course in the twenty-first century globalised workplace, with digital disruption becoming a constant fixture, accountants have to also be much more than skilled number-crunchers.
Far from grey bureaucrats and number-crunchers, many of those who founded and maintained the cohorts were appealingly idiosyncratic, and their single-minded passion drove some close to a breakdown.
While the dust settles on a swathe of election results that will keep the number-crunchers busy for weeks, a torch has already been shone on the west country.
But we worry that this econometric method would confirm the worst caricatures of us as flint-hearted number-crunchers; and not every triumph shows up in a country's balance of payments.
All round it is a great day for lawyers, courts and political number-crunchers and a poor day for common sense and routine maintenance of the machinery of government.
