Predicting the future has been an unconquerable
quest from the beginning of mankind. Many have tried and failed to tame the
flow of time and the future. Some, like
Nostradamus, have succeeded (in a way). Stories of an
economist who predicted the great depression are also
common. However, all such stories are
shrouded by the warm blanket o f mystery.
Predicting the future
can be a small thing such as predicting the antagonist in a detective novel to
gigantic things like natural disasters. The question that must have
come to your mind is how? How can we predict the future?
We have been predicting
the future for a long time now. "If you don't study properly, you
will fail the exam"," that boy will surely become
a success", "BJP will win the elections again".
But, these are not sure outcomes. If you don't study properly,
you may or may not fail. Maybe the test will be easy or maybe you
are a 'freaking genius'. The point is this is not a
way to predict the future 100% correctly. This is just a way to
predict how things 'should' happen and not how things
'will' happen.
An example of this found in science is Quantum
Physics. According to Heisenberg's Principle,
we cannot predict both the velocity and the position of
an electron in an orbit 100% accurately at a position
in time. The entire framework of Quantum Physics revolve around the fact
that electrons will 'most probably' lie in an orbital at a time.
The only accuracy we have in Quantum is about
how inaccurate we are.
So, is there no way to
predict the future correctly? Here is one probable method to
accurately predict the future: The electronic code of
the universe. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? Well, it is. According to
this theory, the world revolves around an unwritten code. That
everything that happens, happens because it
is written in this code. That you and me, we have a code
for each one of us. In fact, it is in my code to write this blog
right now. This code like all abstract ideas is immaterial, imaginary,
invisible meaning you won't find it written inside your
body. (Please don't try to).
Another word for this
code is, any guesses, ... Destiny (or fate) if you would like to call it.
But calling it a code makes it more logical, more tangible and more easily
solvable. The binary code of computers using two variables 1 and 0. This code
uses infinite variables (a countable infinity).
How the past effects
the future: If we have a certain periodic habit, we are 'most probably' bound
to repeat the same habit. This makes a loop sort of thing
in the code. For e.g., If I go to a tennis academy every day
then my code would look somewhat like;
where
T represents the academy and x represents everything else.
Let's work with an
example of making it easy,
Assuming I have to
find out what my physics teacher will teach tomorrow, the variables involved in this part of the code
are the chapter we are doing, it's percent
of completion, the mood of my teacher, the mood of all the students in my
class, the syllabus of the class, the authorities of the school, etc. However, these are just major factors. Using these, I can only predict the future
to a certain extent. For a 100%
prediction, I need to take all factors
and all cases including traffic that day ,
weather, the peons, the school furniture, a
war in another country and whatnot.
Let's work on a simpler
example,
Flipping a coin. We can
easily say there is a 50-50 chance of heads and tails. But
if I want a single answer with 100% accuracy, I need all the
factors.
- The weight of the coin
- the face on top during the time of toss
- power (mechanical power) in the flipper's hand
- the psychology of the tosser
- the angle of the flip
- the time of catch
-
external factors
Code of a Coin Flip |
By these two examples,
you must have realized two things, first, that it is impossible for a
human to
successfully predict the
future without the use of machines. And second, that instead of
an individualistic view, we need a holistic view to even try to successfully
predict the future. Do we have enough for a holistic view? We have
google maps, Facebook and the internet to provide us with our
holistic view. But is it enough?
In conclusion, to
successfully predict the future, we need a machine to
successfully uncover the past, vast strides in psychology and
holistic information of the universe.
"I don't play the odds, I play the man."-HarveySpecter
"I don't play the odds, I play the man."-Harvey
"It's all in the code."-Polaris