Quotes About Prediction

The hallmark of a successful theory is that it predicts correctly facts that were not known when the theory was presented, or, better still, which were then known incorrectly. A good theory should have at least two characteristics: it should be in sharp contrast to at least one alternative idea and it should make predictions which are testable.

Arno Penzias, the Nobel Prize–winning scientist who codiscovered the cosmic microwave background radiation that provided strong support for the Big Bang in the first place, states, "The best data we have are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five Books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole.

A leading authority is anyone who has guessed right more than once.

I'm having the weirdest sense of deja vu right now," said the green caterpiller. Duh!" said the blue caterpiller. "Do you think, just maybe, that's because you predicted this?" Oh, yeah." --The Looking Glass Wars

steeper. In a way, the forward curve simply stretches or magnifies the shape of the current yield curve. And if you don't believe what the forward curve is predicting, then derivatives allow you to bet against the forward curve.

Science can't predict what stories my children's great grandchildren will tell. The ultimate story about the experience of our journey into consciousness is a closed book to theologians and scientists alike, but it is not a book without promise. At this point we've barely cracked the introduction, and already smartass scientists and theologians pretend they know not just how the story started but how it ends—and worse—what it means or doesn't mean.

We may not know how the lines of our life are going to end, but at least we can predict what they'll sound like.

Tim Lenton from the University of East Anglia told the Cambridge meeting: "We are close to being committed to a collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, but we don't think we have passed the tipping point yet." How long have we got? Maybe less than a decade.

One day, maybe not too long from now, the Russian empire will begin to crack. One day soon, the Romanians

A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.

Deine These war, dass die menschliche Unvollkommenheit, die Tatsache, dass wir die Handlungsweise anderer nie mit Sicherheit vorauszusagen, und dass wir ferner den Zufall, der in alles hineinspielt, nicht in unsere Überlegung einzubauen vermögen, der Grund sei der die meisten Verbrechen zwangsläufig zutage fördern müsse.

Planmässig vorgehende Menschen wollen ein bestimmtes Ziel erreichen. Der Zufall trifft sie dann am schlimmsten, wenn sie durch ihn das Gegenteil ihres Ziels erreichen: Das, was sie befürchteten, was sie zu vermeiden suchen (z.B. Ödipus).

In today already walks tomorrow.

The historian is a prophet in reverse.

The historian is a prophet looking backwards.

Our destiny rules over us, even when we are not yet aware of it -- it is the future that makes laws for us today.

Just as Clayton Christensen had predicted in The Innovator's Dilemma, technological innovation caused wrenching pain to the company and the broader industry

People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it.

The best indication of what human beings will do is not what they think, but what the record says similar groups have done in the past.

Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do than what we know about parenting. In terms of teaching our children to dare greatly in the "never enough" culture, the question isn't so much "Are you parenting the right way?" as it is: "Are you the adult that you want your child to grow up to be?"

He explained that unlike our other classes in the program, research was all about prediction and control. I was smitten. You mean that rather than leaning and holding, I could spend my career predicting and controlling? I had found my calling.

Gottman's work on marriages, he was able to predict an outcome of divorce with 90 percent accuracy based on responses to a series of questions. His team screened for what he called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse—criticism, defensiveness, stonewalling, and contempt, with contempt being the most damning in a romantic partnership.

as the sister often foresaw what never came to pass, so the brother often saw much more than was actually the truth.

Today is already the tomorrow which the bad economist yesterday urged us to ignore.