The future is obviously not predicable. But strategic foresight studies allow to build hypotheses of development in particular for production issues. You can find below some examples of such studies dedicated to the future of production:

Article Will technology improve health and safety at work

Book Modes and methods of production in France in 2040

Conference Paper (Strategic) Foresight: an help for decision making tomorrow…...

Conference Paper Regulating the OSH impact on online platform economy (OSHA S...

Book Preview: Platformisation 2027

There are probable, possible, preferable, and prospective futures. Probable, possible, preferable, and prospective futures are all subject to cultural, psychological, and sociological influences but cannot be explored in the same way: the first (one future) entails trend analysis; the second (many futures) calls for imagination and flexibility; the third (an “other” future) springs from value positions, both critical and ideological; the fourth (futuring) hinges on preparedness to act, rooted in self-reliance and solidarity. The research methods associated with probable, possible, preferable, and prospective futures differ too.

In the prediction of the future, sentiment analyzes carried out on large collections of information downloaded from the Internet and collected in Big Data database systems should help.

I described these issues in my publications below:

Article APPLICATION OF DATA BASE SYSTEMS BIG DATA AND BUSINESS INTEL...

Article The Big Data technologies as an important factor of electron...

Article The Technological Solutions Big Data and the Importance of B...

I invite you to discussion and cooperation.

Best wishes

Engineers attempt to predict 'A' future, but make no effort to predict 'THE' future. It's like Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principal - we can either know magnitude or timing. Engineers design for a specific magnitude, typically based from past trends. I will make a structure that can withstand the forces expected during the 1:100 year flood, with very high confidence. I am not going to have any confidence that I know what forces it will experience on the 18th of September, 2032.

The issue is the 'past trends'. People haven't really changed, but we dont have a long time series with good data on people so to predict future human behaviour, we would need to fill in a lot of blanks. Climate is proving to be a moving target, but maybe not outrageously, everywhere. Material properties are well understood - it's all been tested in detail. But put those materials in unique settings, and you'll be guessing again. Without those past trends, yeah, it's just guessing.

Ben Levin

Future is not predictable. But some general rules can be well established so than the future to become a bit better known.

Some time future is prdictable but not alwayes. Prediction or forecast, is a statement about a future event. A prediction is often, but not always, based upon experience or knowledge. Source (Wikipedia)

I think future is not predictable

At least to a certain level but not always.

Although clairvoyance and prediction of future events has been a tradition , forecasting the impending events with exactitude has not always been possible.

I don't think so.

Definitely, according to the trend, similar history, and present conditions, one could predict what is the future status.

“The future is an unknown, but a somewhat predictable unknown. To look to the future, we must first look back upon the past. That is where the seeds of the future were planted. I never think of the future. It comes soon enough”.

Albert Einstein

yes only by mathematical modeling

Hmmmm, some how

Yes and no, like the future this answer is also complicated.The future is messy and complicated. It also depends on our actions, which make it scary. It is no wonder that we try to get a glimpse into the future, whether it is just for security, to know that we will be all right, or to know that we are making the right decision and are on the right track.

@ Is the future predictable?

The only way to predict the future with certainty is to determine the possible futures. The only possible futures are those that are logically possible. This gives you too many possibilities because everything that does not entail a contradiction is logically possible. Given that there are so many possible futures, you cannot say that any one outcome is destined to happen.

I will recommend to all who are interested to read a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb “The Black Swan” and than reflect about limits and challenges to predict the future. But science can or should do is to give better options and alternatives for the future.

The direction of technological evolution is in a generational line (e.g. wheel---coach---car) foreseeable, in terms of the tech-know-logical development of technical tools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Lenski

Other related predictions remain informed guesses and belong to the systemic art of forecasting. We are dealing, concerning the nature of human societies, with non-deterministic and non-linear processes, which are governed by high degrees of uncertainty and not knowing. However, we can communicate with complexity and chaos by a prudent step-by-step strategy to avoid greater detours.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2018/12/02/drucker-forum-2018-a-major-transformation-of-management-is-already-under-way/#42d701006727

At the outset the future is unpredictable as this being a part of our destiny .However we all human being have with us the grace from our creator provided the person has a worthy life where he may arrange to take action for his career life .With this with our inner development of our living within to the grace of inner urge & divinity we can take the advantage of our silent peaceful mind which may direct to take the recourse of intuition & will power thereby we mail suddenly receive the unexpected environment or in the said case we may take the advantage of our dream & it is not much easy for which you have to make our individual life thru the religion,power of prayer & meditation .

It is the fact that future can be predictable with the help of Science of Astrology with the details calculation whereby you have to study your birth chart only yourself & not by professional or any knowledgeable person in the line of Astrology .

It is very likely that the latter cannot offer you justice in an impartial way .

This is my personal opinion

The past constrains the future. And then what isn’t constrained will happen freely.

So there is no absolute determinism. But also, no absolute spontaneity. Given how much past has already accumulated, the world is highly organised and very restricted in the accidents that can occur.

The future belongs to God!

We can assist the future by the past and experience. One can guide somehow the future depending on many factors, one of them is the education and knowledge.

Yes, if you have advanced research tools that help in carrying out prognostic analyzes. For example, tools that allow you to conduct sentiment analyzes on large collections of information downloaded from the Internet and collected in Big Data database systems. If this type of analytics merges with advanced information processing instruments on Business Intelligence analytical platforms, then it is possible to build accurate research tools that enable to carry out precisely completed prediction analyzes of predicted processes for subsequent periods in the future.

Dear Colleagues and Friends from RG The key aspects and determinants of applications of data processing technologies in Big Data database systems for predicting future processes are described in the following publications: Article APPLICATION OF DATA BASE SYSTEMS BIG DATA AND BUSINESS INTEL...

Article The Big Data technologies as an important factor of electron...

Article The Technological Solutions Big Data and the Importance of B...

I invite you to discussion and cooperation.

Best wishes

Thank you all for your predictable and unpredictable answers. Honestly, about half of them were unpredictable to me.

; )

Its a multi-dimensional question. I would quote Nilola Tesla about the future: "Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one According to his works and accomplishment. The present is theirs, the future, for which i really worked is mine".

"It’s not enough to think about the future – you have to build it !" - Alexander van Boetzelaer

Research futures Drivers and scenarios for the next decade - Full report

The ability of the research community to thrive in this new world will depend on understanding the opportunities and the challenges these changes offer and what steps need to be taken now. To assess how today’s trends might shape the research landscape in the decade ahead, Elsevier joined forces with Ipsos MORI, the global market and opinion research specialist. Together, we conducted a large-scale, future-scoping and scenario-planning study. The focus of this study was not which topics will be researched 10 years from now, but rather how that research might be conducted and its findings communicated...

We can never be fully aware of the what the whole future will be like. But in the same breath we must say that we can never be aware of what happened in the whole past, and whats happening now in the present. i beleive memory (our thoughts of the past ) is symmetrically flawed with our thoughts of the present and the future. this question could easily have been "is the past knowable" and to what extent.

yes only by mathematical modeling

to some extend is the future predictable. However -as the past has shown a lot- some new innovations cannot be predicted. Such innovations can have severe implications and make the future happen very differently than it appears from today's perspective. As innovations happen at shorter intervals it can happen that already in a few years live looks very different than it is predicted right now.

I don't think that the future is predictable. Too many innovations that can change the entire path of the future. If 100 years ago someone would have predicted how life is today he/she would have been declared mad. Since then technological innovations happen much, much faster...

I agree with colleague Eberhard Weber. I think that the future is not predictable; only, perhaps, very partially. One need only think in vision of the future which cinema (and scientific films) has been anticipating, over the years. Documentary Future Shock (1972, Alexander Grasshoff), narrated by Orson Welles, has in this regard a disturbing actuality.

Thank you Carlos, maybe another aspect I consider important: people need to have visions, ideas of what kind of future they wish, and at times they imagine. Of course that does not mean that the future will become the way people imagine it, but but reflecting on visions one reflects on what is important, or what is not that should happen. This has a very important ethical dimension.

I agree Eberhard, the ethical dimension is very important. One example of this reasoning/vision, about a future should be avoided: 1984' George Orwell.

Science theorizes that future is predictable, but we are in no place or condition to do so. We may have access to this power later, or science may be able to develop a machine, which can accurately predict the future. But, neither is likely to happen in our lifetime. So, the best thing we can do it stop worrying about, enjoy the present, and make our own future...

http://www.knowledge.info/is-future-predictable

Dear Ahmad Bandarchi has avoided to cite the original resource in his answer. It is a MUST in order to avoid plagiarism!

"The only way to predict the future with certainty is to determine the possible futures. The only possible futures are those that are logically possible. This gives you too many possibilities because everything that does not entail a contradiction is logically possible. Given that there are so many possible futures, you cannot say that any one outcome is destined to happen. "

The author of his answer is Purple Pond!

https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/3417/how-is-the-future-predictable

Dear Ljubomir Jacić

Thank you for your reminder. As you mentioned, I did non-professional behavior.

the future is not exactly predictable as there are too many unknown unknowns. Too many thinks we do not even know that maybe even in 10 years they play an important role in forming the time then.

There are many scientific articles regarding the prediction of future, or better say, modelling the future in different areas. There are many methods available for like cellular automata approach. Different scenarios of future may be obtained.

agree with Ljubomir Jacić .

What do these models of the future say, which Ljubomir Jacić mentions???

@Eberhard Weber Here's an example:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258628206_Monitoring_and_predicting_land_use_change_in_Tripoli_Metropolitan_City_using_an_integrated_Markov_chain_and_cellular_automata_models_in_GIS

The level of predictability of the future is directly proportionally correlated with the ongoing process of improving the ICT instruments Industry 4.0. and inversely proportional to the future measured by the predictive analysis measured in the years.

The above scholars elaborated your question with very solid answers. I will just offer you some examples related to your query.

The answer to your question is YES, and it is already evident from the term prediction, which is mostly for the use of Future unseen events recognition. See some example as : https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/12/03/5-important-artificial-intelligence-predictions-for-2019-everyone-should-read/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2019/11/22/top-artificial-intelligence-ai-predictions-for-2020-from-idc-and-forrester/

Maybe the near future (5 to 10 years) but beyond that the predictions might be inaccurate as factors, hitherto unknown, might come into play to change the present course of actions.

Peak Conventional USA Oil occurring in 1973 was predicted in 1950 (timing was out by about 6 months), because the point of inflection had been observed. The prediction for Peak Conventional World Oil was predicted at the same time to be in the year 2000 (timing was out by 8 years), without seeing the point of inflection in the data. So, predictions 50 years away will be pretty rough. Predictions that occur after sufficient data is available should be reasonably close, even 25 years away.

The trouble comes from using data that doesn't have a thermodynamic basis (much financial data, for example). If it's not reflecting a physical process that has predictable causal relationships, then the prediction will be shaggy at best, and completely out to lunch at the worst.

Right now, we can make fairly tight predictions 25 years away, and reasonable predictions about 40 years away. And yet, we design infrastructure to last for 100 years - we're effectively guessing and hoping on the rest.

SO, we can say reasonably confidently that shale oil in the US is running out in the very near future, and peak fossil carbon will occur in less than 25 years. We can't say why we will peak in 2042 - maybe we will get smart? Maybe we wont? Can't know that in advance. IF we got smart, maybe we will slow production, and delay the peak by a couple of years. Maybe we will ramp up, and have it hit sooner. But we can't change the declining EROI, and we can't extract fossil carbon that hasn't been found, so our confidence is pretty high.

Hi,

I would say predicting the future using algorithms is possible today. However, as humans belonging to the present generation, we would not be able to take into account the practical scenario, climatic changes, their impacts of the human race etc., and predict accurately. Our algorithm design would use knowledge from the past and the present to design a possible future. Would someone have predicted the rapid technology boom that has happened over the last 2 decades?

Some predictions are possible in time of Covid-19! And important!

9 new coronavirus maps predict how fast hospitals will hit capacity

Now that there are coronavirus cases around the world, the next challenge is figuring out what cities will be hit the hardest and which places will need the more hospital beds and healthcare workers. Government officials and healthcare experts are using complex maps built with geographic information systems to guide these decisions...

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/10-new-coronavirus-maps-predict-how-fast-hospitals-will-hit-capacity-and-which-places-are-at-highest-risk/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=26515897512689358169344413145444

The only We always have is the present moment. Why ask for the future?

AI to identify, track and forecast outbreaks

The better we can track the virus, the better we can fight it. By analyzing news reports, social media platforms, and government documents, AI can learn to detect an outbreak. Tracking infectious disease risks by using AI is exactly the service Canadian startup BlueDot provides. In fact, the BlueDot’s AI warned of the threat several days before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization issued their public warnings...

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/coronavirus-how-artificial-intelligence-data-science-technology-marr/?trk=eml-email_series_follow_newsletter_01-hero-1-title_link&midToken=AQHLIjW6KB_ESw&fromEmail=fromEmail&ut=3ASh0JVtUo4Vc1

I dont think so.

Currently, with the increase in the levels of new risk categories, long-term forecasting of the future is difficult. For example, the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic has significantly increased the potential range of uncertainty and made it difficult to forecast processes and events that may emerge in the coming years. The currently used forecasting instruments are improved through the implementation of Industry 4.0 technology.

Best wishes,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

It depends if we want to see the future with a microscope or a magnifying glass. If we want to do it in detail it is impossible, however, if we want to do it in a macro way surely yes.

@Dariusz Prokopowicz thanks

Thanks @Ljubomir Jacić

Thank you @Navnit Kumar Ramamoorthy

It depends on how advanced analytical tools we use and how extensive and multi-faceted data sets we analyze.

Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

It depends if we want to see the future with a microscope or a magnifying glass. for to develop advanced analytical tools we use and how extensive and multi-faceted data sets we analyze.

The future is indeed unpredictable. For future to be predicted you have to have every information on the atomic level or even further than that. Everything happens on the smallest level and well, humans are not that intelligent to decipher everything.

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-future-unpredictable-from-a-scientific-point-of-view-not-a-philosophical-or-religious-one-This-is-not-intended-for-sharing-life-experiences#:~:text=The%20future%20is%20indeed%20unpredictable,that%20intelligent%20to%20decipher%20everything.

In any audience, there is a percentage of people who act very academic and tell me there is no way to predict the future.  They comment about Black Swan events, acts of God and the vast number of variables that just make it impossible...

I choose to not give up so easily because I strongly believe the hope of the world is a future point of view that helps us make good decisions today. Without an ability to accurately predict the future, we are doomed to simply be reactive to highly likely negative outcomes we could have avoided. Foresight helps us mitigate future dangers and it is really not that hard...

https://www.klososky.com/blog/the-future-is-predictable

Hi. Prediction is a science depends on probability science. In general, It is a mathmatical science. Future is predictable, theoritically yes but actually is not true because it can happen or can not happen.