• The robots who predict the future Three books unpack our infatuation with prediction, and what we lose when we outsource this task to machines. • To be human is, fundamentally, to be a forecaster. • Occasionally a pretty good one. • Trying to see the future, whether through the lens of past experience or the logic of cause and effect, has helped us hunt, avoid being hunted, plant crops, forge social bonds, and in general survive in a world that does not prioritize our survival. • Indeed, as the tools of divination have changed over the centuries, from tea leaves to data sets, our conviction that the future can be known (and therefore controlled) has only grown stronger. • Today, we are awash in a sea of predictions so vast and unrelenting that most of us barely even register them.

Article Summaries:

  • Three new books examine how society’s obsession with forecasting has shifted from human intuition to algorithmic prediction. The first, The Means of Prediction: How AI Really Works (and Who Benefits) by economist Maximilian Kasy, explains that most modern predictions rely on supervised learning-statistical models trained on large, labeled data sets. Kasy argues that these models, designed to maximize profit, can reinforce bias and limit life choices. The other two titles (not named here) similarly trace the historical evolution of divination tools and warn that predictive technology increasingly serves power and control rather than public good. All three warn that the invisible, profit‑driven predictive layer reshapes everyday decisions, often with unintended social consequences.

Sources: