I haven't seen this comparison made yet in the popular press. I wonder why?
In some cultures, including our own, "fortune telling" is both popular and profitable. In the SoCal area there are storefront businesses with names like Cisco Palm Reading, Mikro-sopht Tarot and Chinga Fortune Telling. We all, from time to time, really feel a strong desire to get a peek at our futures.
Computer modeling is the attempt to know the future, based on science. But it's still just fortune telling, when you get down to the nitty-gritty. But we, the public, are supposed to be in awe of the process, because it's 'scientists' doing the modeling. But I bet that if you went to an experienced fortune teller and got a reading about where your life is headed, statistically it would be as accurate an prediction as you could get from someone who took all the pains he/she could, to do an accurate computer modeling of what lies in store for you.
Which of course brings us to today's get rich quick scheme. Find an 'educational' website and get your doctorate in Human Potentiality. So now you'd be like <insert favorite alias>, Ph.D. Then buy the domain name ComputerizedFutures.com, or something like that, and get a moody, unpredictable, but fabulously hot website designer to prepare it for you. Then charge $21.99 for a Computer Model of the client's future. Couples can ask about their fortunes for just $39.99. There's a 250 entry questionaire and then you get to ask three questions about your future or the couples' future.
Can you see why I say that an experienced 'fortune teller' has just as good a chance to 'get it right' as does the 'computer modeler'?
Now what to you suppose I think about the computer models that predict that 2009 will see a dramatic upturn in global warming? Pretty much what I think about the computer models that said that 2006 was going to be high activity hurricane season. Fortune tellers and computer modelers both know that their incomes depend on telling the client what he, the client, wants to hear.
(Those seeking to invest in ComputerizedFutures.com should contact me at the email address of their choice.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Computer modeling also involves the word "model," which is always more popular than those old gypsy-looking ladies with their crystal balls.
We all intrinsically trust machinery more than we trust some batty old hag who clearly can't see the future of fashion and that the bandana has no place in it. It just really boils down to how low-rent you prefer your augurs to be.
I'd like to invest.
Does this site feature a large black woman with a fake Jamaican accent?
I think that is a requirement.
That, or knowing Dionne Warwick
Post a Comment