Quotes About Prediction

How do politicians cope with the challenges of predicting or manipulating the future, given that we can have only partial knowledge of the systems being analysed? 'I think that's rather a flattering account of what goes on here. With some notable exceptions it's mostly a bunch of very egotistical people, very ambitious people, who are primarily interested in their own careers.

this equation into the future, it takes a dramatic lurch downward, absurdly predicting complete annihilation of the US population in the middle of October 2028. (Or perhaps the mathematics knows something we don't!) Graph source: The Mathworks, Inc.

The last twelve hours had been tense, everyone seeing the Mexican border looming large, and beyond it, the wide world into which someone like Vasquez could vanish. But with each move the abnorm made, Cooper got better at predicting the next. Like peeling away layers of tissue paper to reveal the object beneath, a vague form began to resolve into the pattern that defined his target.

Trying to analyze a situation without enough data was like looking at a photograph of a ball in flight and trying to gauge its direction. Is it going up, down, sideways? Is it about to collide with a baseball bat? Is it moving at all, or is something on the blind side holding it in place? A single frame didn't mean a thing. Patterns were based on data. With enough datapoints, you could predict just about anything.

And if I really can see the future, then what does it mean? Is there any sense in our lives if everything is already out there, just waiting to happen? For if that were so, then life would be a horrible monster indeed, with no chance of escape from fate, from destiny. It would be like reading a book, but reading it backwards, from the final chapter down to chapter one, so that the end is already known to you.

If I can see the future, then what does that mean? It would be like knowing the end of a story right from the start, almost as if you were reading it backwards. And who wants to know how their own story ends?

It was ordained at the beginning of the world that certain signs should prefigure certain events.

I think it is quite dangerous for an organisation to think they can predict where they are going to need leadership. It needs to be something that people are willing to assume if it feels relevant, given the context of any situation.

I don't think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.

As I see it, the word "private" is going plumb out of date. It's goin' to be an ole-fashioned concep', mark my words. That's a prophecy.

A historian is a risk-terrified prophet.

One of the soundest rules to remember when making forecasts in the field of economics is that whatever is to happen is happening already.

Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is granted.

It will be funny in about 10 years.

The defense should be expecting a run or a pass here.

X-rays will prove to be a hoax

Heres something to think about: How come you never see a headline like Psychic Wins Lottery?

Si soy incapaz de trascender mi pasado, es difícil que pueda inventar un futuro que no sea directamente predecible desde el pasado

To become a future-teller, one needs only to study history.

What happened once, will happen again...but in a different form. To become a future-teller, one needs only to study history.

a greater probability of one thing happening over another. In a sense, technical analysis allows you

In 1997 I said they were dicks for voting Labour – but nobody was having it at the time. Three years later people are saying – 'Oh, you were right there, Mark.' It's a waste of time, really, but I still do it. Nobody likes the bringer of bad news.

Prophets are not honored in their own land or in their own time either. The future bears them out—or it does not.

And it's best if you know a good thing is going to happen, like an eclipse or getting a microscope for Christmas. And it's bad if you know a bad thing is going to happen, like having a filling or going to France. But I think it is worst if you don't know whether it is a good thing or a bad thing which is going to happen.