Francis Wheen

Crystal Balls-Up

Future Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail and Why We Believe Them Anyway

By

Virgin Books 306pp £11.99 order from our bookshop

Is there any Schadenfreude more exquisite than seeing a prophet take a pratfall? When George Santayana wrote that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, he should have added: those who claim to know the future are condemned to make fools of themselves.

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