Tag Archives: Prediction

PROMPT: Three Years

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What will your life be like in three years?

I have no idea. That’s the beauty of life, and the curse of living during period in which technology will soon grow completely beyond our control. Life might be an ever-better version of what it is now, or I might be living in a cave trying to stay out of the way of the war between Skynet and our would-be Alien overlords. Or I might be farming in a world that has EMP’d itself back to the Stone Age to avoid being overtaken by technology. Nothing is certain but that change will come.

PROMPT: 10 Things

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List 10 things you know to be absolutely certain.

1.) Nothing is permanent.

2.) The world is not what it seems.

3.) One’s subjective experience is not determined by the state of the world.

4.) Nobody grasps enough truth to be intolerant.

5.) Uncertainty is the root of all fear.

6.) Fear is the root of all hatred.

7.) Hatred is a subjective experience (See #3.) Also, uncertainty is the root of all hatred (by the transitive property,) hence the benefit of travel.

8.) Any who: a.) has suffered a string of hardships; b.) allows themselves to believe that some “other” is wholly responsible for said hardships; and c.) who lacks a sufficient sense of self-empowerment to avoid surrendering entirely to a group identity can (and likely will) become a Nazi (or the equivalent of their day.)

9.) No one can predict the future. [Regardless of how much we all love to try. (See #5.)]

10.) Entropy increases (ultimately, in a closed system.)

NOTE: I remain ready to abandon any certainty in the face of better information.

PROMPT: 10 Years

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Daily writing prompt
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
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If there’s anything that I learned in all those years of Social Science education, it’s that forecasting is a sucker’s game.

I don’t know where I’ll be, but I hope it’s someplace I never saw coming. #embracethechaos.

PROMPT: A Year Ago

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Is your life today what you pictured a year ago?

I make no predictions. Forecasting is a sucker’s game.

PROMPT: Evening

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What are you doing this evening?

Probably just reading and otherwise restfully winding down from the day.

But who can know what the future holds?

BOOKS: A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia Butler

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A Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An EssayA Few Rules for Predicting the Future: An Essay by Octavia E. Butler
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Amazon.in Page

Release Date: April 16, 2024

This brief essay by one of science fiction’s greats, Octavia Butler, discusses her thoughts about forecasting the future and why it’s worth doing even though it’s so difficult (at some level of precision– even impossible.) Butler tells a few stories about questions from fans, being prescribed medication, and growing up during the space race and Cold War, stories that cleverly present her thoughts on the challenging art of anticipating the future.

It should be pointed out that this is a very short work. Even the sixty-ish page count is deceptive as that is accomplished with lots of white space, with large fonts, and even with colorful blank pages (and / or artwork.) If you’re paying full book price for it, be forewarned that, as clever and quotable as it is, it’s essentially magazine article length (and not a long article at that.)

If you can get your hands on this essay for a price commensurate with its word count, I’d highly recommend reading it.

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