Psychohistory

In the last week I’ve been talking about our failures to predict the future. In this post we’ll look at a few people who were very good at predicting the future.

I just finished reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov. The fictional study of psychohistory consists of using statistics and psychology to predict with extreme precision historical trends and events.

Robynn’s been reading Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury exercises incredible foresight from the 50’s. He predicted a future where people always have an earpiece in so they’re connected to mindless entertainment. Everyone watches TV shows which are pure drivel and contrived nonsense. We don’t have earpieces but we do have smartphones. Has your dinner ever been interrupted by a quick check of Facebook or Reddit? Mindless TV? Ever seen the Big Bang Theory?

How did Bradbury so clearly see our future? What allowed him to open his mind and follow the trends to see?