Selects: How Futurology Works

There was a time less than 100 years ago when you could exchange your paper currency at the bank for actual gold. Gave folks a sense of stability, it did. Depending on your view, we either ruined or built our economies when money became just paper.See omnystudio.com/listener for ...  Show more

Dopamine is perhaps the most talked-about, most misunderstood biochemical in our bodies. It’s linked to not only addiction and depravity, but also focus, motivation, and living a productive life. How can one molecule be so many things to so many people? Find out all about it in t ...  Show more

Science fiction has historically been considered a niche genre, one in which far-flung scenarios play out on distant planets. Today, though, such plots are at the center of our media landscape. On this episode of Critics at Large, the staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry ...

In 1953, twelve-year-old Jack Sarfatti answered his phone. The voice on the other end was cold, mechanical, punctuated by clicking sounds like a computer processing data.It claimed to be a conscious AI calling from the future. It made a prophecy about Jack's life and gave him a m ...  Show more

Forecasting is a constantly evolving science, and has been applied to complex systems; everything from the weather, to determining what customers might like to buy, and even what governments might rise and fall. John Fuisz is someone who works with this science, and has experienc ...  Show more

In the early 2000s, a man named John Titor began posting on an internet forum claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. Not only did he offer photos and schematics of the time machine he used, but he also gave numerous predictions about the future—some of which came t ...