Tropical Futurism Envisions the Climate of Our Fate
Is the future over? To some, it has been for some time. Ten years ago, the late critic Mark Fisher wrote of “the slow cancellation of the future” in his…
Natural History, Not Technology, Will Dictate Our Destiny
We do this in our homes, hospitals, backyards, farm fields, and even, in some cases, forests when we use antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, and any other “-cide.” And the effects are…
How Do You Practice Responsible Astrology?
All the astrologers I spoke with emphasized confounding factors as one key reason astrological prediction is never, ever 100 percent certain. “People have misconceptions that the astrologer is looking into…
The Danger of Leaving Weather Prediction to AI
Humans have tried to anticipate the climate’s turns for millennia, using early lore—“red skies at night” is an optimistic sigil for weather-weary sailors that’s actually associated with dry air and…
The Creepy TikTok Algorithm Doesn’t Know You
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that “the algorithm” knows you better than you know yourself. A computer can supposedly predict whether you’ll quit your job or break up with your…
Crime Prediction Keeps Society Stuck in the Past
One of the most remarkable examples of the use of predictive technology is the story of Robert McDaniel, detailed by journalist Matt Stroud in the Verge in May 2021. McDaniel…
Too Much Future Makes the Present Miserable
Future predictions always proliferate at the end of the year, but in 2021 something different is joining the usual speculations about gadgets and lifestyles: existential introspection. Amid Covid-19 variants and…
Predicting Death Could Change the Value of a Life
If you could predict your death, would you want to? For most of human history, the answer has been a qualified yes. In Neolithic China, seers practiced pyro-osteomancy, or the…
The History of Predicting the Future
The future has a history. The good news is that it’s one from which we can learn; the bad news is that we very rarely do. That’s because the clearest…
If AI Is Predicting Your Future, Are You Still Free?
As you read these words, there are likely dozens of algorithms making predictions about you. It was probably an algorithm that determined that you would be exposed to this article…