Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Telling the future




Is it possible to accurately predict the future?Have you ever done so?Possibly if you went out on the town without telling your wife where you were going you might have predicted a flying frying pan, if she is into that kind of thing.When you see a yellow light at an intersection you are approaching in a car as the driver you show your predictive powers by either stepping on the gas peddle hard or the brakes, regardless of your inclination it seems precognitive.

My cat wants to go out every day and I can predict that she will meow at me and put her paws up on my knee and let me know its time, sometime during the day tomorrow.I have heard of people who upon having met their future wives and husbands have said they knew it fairly quickly that they would marry.

Do you think that is possible or do you think they created the circumstances which they predicted?

Nostradamus was said to predict events centuries in the future. Cloaked in prose so obscure it seems anything would have fulfilled most of his fortune telling. Computer models with missing variables predict the planets weather a few days ahead. Despite their limitations they can predict the course of major hurricanes up to 3 days ahead with increasing accuracy. Is this approach an AI crystal ball?

The subject of Technical analysis is largely used for its predictive nature. Just like the supercomputers that calculate the weather or the limited analytical power of a hot rodder approaching an intersection it has its uses and limitations. A Predictor may not take into account the effect of a frying pan on a noggin, for instance.

It is possible however to predict the future.

Let me know what you think the limits of such prediction actually are, I am curious.