Odd fact

[Kelly Antilles]

While riding the stationary bike this morning, I was watching Headline News. They had a very interesting fact. 40% of Canadians believe people can tell the future.

So, what do you Canadians think about that?

[Darth Wong]

While riding the stationary bike this morning, I was watching Headline News. They had a very interesting fact. 40% of Canadians believe people can tell the future.

So, what do you Canadians think about that?

Where did they run this poll? Alberta? They sure as hell didn't poll me.

[Luke Starkiller]

While riding the stationary bike this morning, I was watching Headline News. They had a very interesting fact. 40% of Canadians believe people can tell the future.

So, what do you Canadians think about that?

Where did they run this poll? Alberta? They sure as hell didn't poll me.

I would have guessed Newfoundland.

[Kelly Antilles]

I have no idea. It was just across the bottom. I can't find any reference to it on the CNN site.

[Mr Bean]

20$ say it was Quebec

[aerius]

Obviously I was not part of this poll, in fact I've never been polled in my life for anything other than blatant product & service ads. I'm not sure what to think of it, except that I put as much value in it as the polls that say 35% of Americans believe that Elvis is still alive.

[Alferd Packer]

My money's on Nunavut.

[Lagmonster]

If they said that they polled Vancouver, I'd believe them. Them's some crazy mothers out on the west coast.

Although I heard this morning (CHUM radio news) on the radio on the drive in that Ottawa has the lowest collision rate among motorists in Canada, and lowest drunk-driving rate, with Edmonton at the bottom, right behind Toronto (Which means if by some odd and unforseen chance Mike and I ever meet, *I'm* driving. *laugh*).

[Wicked Pilot]

I can predict the future too. My latest prediction is:

*closes eyes and begins to hum*
The price of stamps will rise again.

[C.S.Strowbridge]

If they said that they polled Vancouver, I'd believe them. Them's some crazy mothers out on the west coast.

Yep, that figure was probably heavily influenced by B.C. All the hippies come to B.C.

Although, I'd like to see the actual survey used and the questions leading up to that one. Cause I believe we can predict the future by studing the past.

Here's some bold predictions by Brother Alpha

1.) There will be violence in the Middle East.
2.) There will be another teenaged spree killer and the media will blame vidoe games.
3.) Mike Wong will get more e-mails from ignorant creationists.
4.) Amber Benson and I will meet accidentally one day, fall in love and live happily every after.

[Durandal]

Of course we can tell the future. And guess what? We can do it to astounding accuracy, in some cases!

"No! Surely not! Has Durandal abandoned his skepticism?!" You say.

I predict that if I drop any object from 10m up, it will take about 1.43s to hit the ground.

HAH!

[Lagmonster]

Of course we can tell the future. And guess what? We can do it to astounding accuracy, in some cases!

"No! Surely not! Has Durandal abandoned his skepticism?!" You say.

I predict that if I drop any object from 10m up, it will take about 1.43s to hit the ground.

HAH!

Okay, since I'm apparently SD.net's resident spookologist (and I say that in the highest order of jest), let me tell you that the first retort to that is, "No, when we are talking about predicting the future, we mean of HUMAN ACTIONS."

This is invariably the pedestal on which hardcore psychics stand when confronted by the fact that we can predict the future of the natural universe with accuracy.

[oberon]

I predict that computers will get faster. Oh, and also, CDs will morph into DVDs of videos so when you listen to them, you have something on the TV to look at other than a song list and play status.

[Singular Quartet]

Prolly because of all the hippies who moved into Canada to evade the Vietnam Draft.

[Cpt_Frank]

Ah well at least the number wasn't above 50%, that would've been a shame now wouldn't it?

[Kuja]

Prolly because of all the hippies who moved into Canada to evade the Vietnam Draft.

Good idea, SQ!

[Asst. Asst. Lt. Cmdr. Smi]

I can predict the future too!

I predict that the media will continue being liberal.

I predict that within the next 2 years, at least one person on Earth will die.

I predict that if I write a book about this, gullible morons will rush to buy it and call me prphetic.

Take that, Nostradamus!

[Nick]

I can predict the future too!

I predict that the media will continue being liberal.

I predict that within the next 2 years, at least one person on Earth will die.

I predict that if I write a book about this, gullible morons will rush to buy it and call me prphetic.

Take that, Nostradamus!

Ah, let's get a bit more adventurous.

I predict that humanity will manage to avoid self-annihilation (because if I'm wrong, no-one will be around to point out that I was wrong)

I predict that there is an event in your near future which will have a positive impact on your life. (events with a positive impact on our lives happen all the time - a prediction like this one merely makes us notice them)

I predict that you will be saddened by an inter-personal conflict. Try to keep things in perspective, and it will blow over. (this is just basic good advice - and inter-personal conflicts are another thing that happens all the time).

I think what we've demonstrated is that, unless we can find the original questionarre, we aren't going to know what the survey meant by "predicting the future".

Oh, and for the Canadians who said "well, they obviously didn't ask me" - did you temporarily miss the fact that 60% of Canadians said they didn't think it was possible to predict the future? That sounds like a pretty good result to me (relatively speaking).

[FireNexus]

We can predict the future. All we need is a really fast computer and all the information about everything in the universe. Then I can tell you exactly what will happen from now on.

[Nick]

We can predict the future. All we need is a really fast computer and all the information about everything in the universe. Then I can tell you exactly what will happen from now on.

I'd like to introduce you to a fellow named Heisenburg, and a certain principle of particle physics he is generally credited with discovering. . .

[Singular Quartet]

We can predict the future. All we need is a really fast computer and all the information about everything in the universe. Then I can tell you exactly what will happen from now on.

I'd like to introduce you to a fellow named Heisenburg, and a certain principle of particle physics he is generally credited with discovering. . .

That's why he said all the information about everything... He would need locations of subatomic poarticles, which just happens to be included in "Everything."

[Zoink]

It's not suprizing at all. The number is the same for the U.S. Considering most people in Canada and the U.S. believe in an imaginary super-being.. I'm not really suprized at all.

From Scientific American:

...published in the National Science Foundation's biennial report (April 2002) on the state of science understanding: 30 percent of adult Americans believe that UFOs are space vehicles from other civilizations; 60 percent believe in ESP; 40 percent think that astrology is scientific; 32 percent believe in lucky numbers; 70 percent accept magnetic therapy as scientific; and 88 percent accept alternative medicine.

Education by itself is no paranormal prophylactic. Although belief in ESP decreased from 65 percent among high school graduates to 60 percent among college graduates, and belief in magnetic therapy dropped from 71 percent among high school graduates to 55 percent among college graduates, that still leaves more than half fully endorsing such claims! And for embracing alternative medicine, the percentages actually increase, from 89 percent for high school grads to 92 percent for college grads.

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The siren song of pseudoscience can be too alluring to resist.

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We can glean a deeper cause of this problem in another statistic: 70 percent of Americans still do not understand the scientific process, defined in the study as comprehending probability, the experimental method and hypothesis testing. One solution is more and better science education, as indicated by the fact that 53 percent of Americans with a high level of science education (nine or more high school and college science/math courses) understand the scientific process, compared with 38 percent of those with a middle-level science education (six to eight such courses) and 17 percent with a low level (five or fewer courses).

[Cpt. Marko Ramius]

It's not possible to predict the future... and you could never build a computer good enough to even give you a rough guess. Too many variables to calculate.

[The Dark]

[quote="Singuler Quartet"][quote="Nick"][quote="FireNexus"]We can predict the future. All we need is a really fast computer and all the information about everything in the universe. Then I can tell you exactly what will happen from now on. [/quote]

I'd like to introduce you to a fellow named Heisenburg, and a certain principle of particle physics he is generally credited with discovering. . . [/quote]

That's why he said all the information about everything... He would need locations of subatomic poarticles, which just happens to be included in "Everything."[/quote]

Hmmm...I thought I read something recently about scientists thinking it's not possible to predict how quarks will act. Besides, even if you know the location of a particle, thanks to Mr. Heisenberg, you have no idea where it's going. As certainty of location increases, certainty of path decreases, and vice versa. I quite like the uncertainty principle, it makes life more fun for things to not be completely predictable (although I do predict my social life will be pathetic until at least the end of April...my courseload makes that a no-brainer).

[Nick]

We can predict the future. All we need is a really fast computer and all the information about everything in the universe. Then I can tell you exactly what will happen from now on.

I'd like to introduce you to a fellow named Heisenburg, and a certain principle of particle physics he is generally credited with discovering. . .

That's why he said all the information about everything... He would need locations of subatomic poarticles, which just happens to be included in "Everything."

Nope. Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that it is impossible, even in theory to know the exact current state of the universe.

If you know the exact current position of every particle, you know nothing about the momenta of those particles.

Similarly, if you know the exact current momentum of every particle, you know nothing about the positions of those particles.

Essentially, the HUP states that, for any particle:

(uncertainty in position) * (uncertainty in momentum) is strictly greater than a fixed, universal constant. (if I recall correctly, that constant is the Planck constant, but I'd advice looking that part up in a physics text book).

As the uncertainty in one measurement goes to zero, the uncertainty in the other trends towards infinity.

Given these unavoidable uncertainties, any attempt at computationally predicting the future would go off the rails after a very short period of time. Certain macroscopic trends can be predicted, because the quantum uncertainties tend to cancel each other out (e.g. classical Newtonian mechanics), but many systems are deterministic without being predictable (e.g. the weather).

Basically, God does play dice with the universe - it's just that the dice are generally loaded.