James Drogan

The December 30, 2007 issue of The Economist includes the article "The future of futurology."  I especially want to bring this to the attention of my students who, from time to time, may deign to tune in here.

Many of us, but especially students, face the prospect of what to do next, to look ahead, to identify choices.  Articles such this help us to identify and think about the alternatives.

I include here two paragraphs from the article to whet your appetite for the whole thing.

"A third piece of advice: say you don’t know. Uncertainty looks smarter than ever before. Even politicians are seeing the use of it: governments that signed the Kyoto protocol on climate change said, in effect: “We don’t know for sure, but best to be on the safe side”—and they have come to look a lot smarter than countries such as America and Australia which claimed to understand climate change well enough to see no need for action.

The last great redoubt of the know-alls has been the financial markets, hedge funds claiming to have winning strategies for beating the average. But after the market panic of 2007 more humility is to be expected there too."