Predicting the Future

Whether there is a future to predict is not a question many people care to think about too deeply, though the process of predicting the future has itself a history. We did not always predict from the same assumptions as we do now, or for the same reasons. Today, on the basis of empirical observation and scientific theory, accredited experts and specialists forecast the economy, the social consequences of medical innovation and even what will happen to the universe in billions of years time. In the past soothsayers, priests, oracles and comets foretold the future on the basis of religious ideology and traditional authority. In a remarkable series of thought-provoking essays the authors examine both approaches and their consequences and chart our continuing attempts to see beyond the present.

Reviews & endorsements

"The contributors are eminent scholars from diverse fields who provide the reader with a personal view of predicting the future that is rooted in their own discipline and perspective. While some contributors stay closer to their task than others, all of them provide useful insights into the role and problems of prediction." British Medical Journal

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Product details

• Date Published: February 2005
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521619745
• length: 204 pages

• dimensions: 245 x 187 x 15 mm
• weight: 0.375kg
• availability: Available