A widely-read, authoritative source of information will not only provide some insight into the future, but may well strongly influence it. Forbes magazine is a wonderful example. Are these great oracles prognosticators or influencers? In anticipating or envisioning a future which is described and promoted by a powerful source, does society and its institutions unconsciously move toward making these hypothesized futurescapes and innovations come into being, as if being "directed?"
This is both a philosophical and pragmatic consideration for all global futurists, trend-watchers and planning professionals. This recursive feedback effect is a prediction algorithm nightmare! Both Heisenberg and Nostradamus must be spinning in their graves.
I am an occasional reader of Forbes, and value not so much what wisdom their excellent writers may impart in terms of futurism and prediction, but the influence which they wield in terms of the masses, the resultant "re-posting media ripple effect," and the indisputable power of the self-fulfilling prophesy which Forbes, as a well-regarded "authoritative source" imputes into the fabric from which the future is woven...
Enjoy what follows:
- List outlines 10 technological advances to watch out for
Hybrid MRI/PET imaging and stem cell heart generation are among the 10 big science and technology advances that are worth paying attention to, according to this blog. The blog list also included nano batteries and paperless paper. Forbes/Neuropsyched blog (7/29)
Notwithstanding the prediction paradox discussed at the opening of my article, I found the advances cited in the above Forbes outline very much in accord with my own predictive inclinations. And I state this regardless of whether this information is predictive or causative.
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