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posted by janrinok on Sunday December 17 2017, @07:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the that-sums-it-up dept.

The answer should be NO, but, do you think this would work ?

Good scientists are not only able to uncover patterns in the things they study, but to use this information to predict the future. Meteorologists study atmospheric pressure and wind speed to predict the trajectories of future storms. A biologist may predict the growth of a tumor based on its current size and development. A financial analyst may try to predict the ups and downs of a stock based on things like market capitalization or cash flow.

Perhaps even more interesting than the above phenomena is that of predicting the behavior of human beings. Attempts to predict how people will behave have existed since the origins of humankind. Early humans had to trust their instincts. Today, marketers, politicians, trial lawyers and more make their living on predicting human behavior. Predicting human behavior, in all of its forms, is big business. So, how does mathematics do in predicting our own behavior in general? Despite advances in stock market analytics, economics, political polling and cognitive neuroscience – all of which ultimately endeavor to predict human behavior – science may never be able to do so with perfect certainty.

[...] As technology develops, scientists may find that we can predict human behavior rather well in one area, while still lacking in another. It's very difficult to give an overall sense of the limitations. For instance, facial recognition may be easier to emulate because vision is one of many human sensory processing systems, or because there are only so many ways faces can differ. On the other hand, predicting voting behavior, especially based on the 2016 presidential election, is quite another story. There are many complex and not yet understood reasons why humans do what they do.

Still others argue that, theoretically at least, that perfect prediction will someday be possible. Until then, with any luck, mathematics and statistics may help us increasingly account for what people, on average, will do next.

https://theconversation.com/can-math-predict-what-youll-do-next-78892


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  • (Score: 2) by mhajicek on Sunday December 17 2017, @09:37AM (3 children)

    by mhajicek (51) on Sunday December 17 2017, @09:37AM (#610935)

    Free will is an illusion, just like identity and consciousness.

    --
    The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday December 17 2017, @10:57AM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday December 17 2017, @10:57AM (#610949) Journal
    Now, all you need to do is define what "illusion" means in a quantum world.
  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday December 17 2017, @10:44PM (1 child)

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday December 17 2017, @10:44PM (#611128) Journal

    Identity, AKA I am, is the only thing you are 100% sure of, works even for solipsism. Does not matter what it consists of.
    Any assertions that start saying "I am" is an illusion are just calling reality an illusion. Guess what, it's just a matter of definition. Reality the domain of "I am". What is in reality can interfere with me and vice versa.
    The nature of it is not provable as being such, from the inside.

    Now, philosophers keep looking at the fabric of reality like it yielded true knowledge. Wrong, it yields technical knowledge, hacks. True knowledge of a game is attained by the PLAYERS of the game, not the programmers. The program offers another perspective, useful, vital maybe but not as much as they make it.

    Now, spiritualists INVERT the I am putting it as the Ultimate objective. Meditation, saying OMMMMMMMMM. Nice, but if you strive to go where you started, you are going BACKWARDS.

    Now, Religions are a mixed bag. Some look like they thought stuff over, some are monkeying.

    You are quite in the dark about this as you call identity an illusion, which is denying the only thing that you ever truly felt. Do you feel like you are not? No? then why start with the equiprobable option that leads to the opposite of the only thing you can define as true?

    --
    Account abandoned.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:51PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 18 2017, @04:51PM (#611453)

      Consider that all of your atoms have been part of some other "I" in the past and you can start doubting about what identity really is. Every second we all lose atoms and gain new ones. We are in a constant state of flow. What part of you is really you, when everything will be ultimately replaced?