Why predict?

At the same time, though, many of us early predictors of a glorious web future truly believed that this vision was a near inevitability. I did. I thought the inevitability came not from the tech but from the human longing for a future in which we are connected, creative, and good toward one another. I have learned my lesson, but, honestly, only partially. 

In any case, predictions such as these are not mere calculations of how the future will unfold. In fact, the future doesn’t unfold at all because that implies it’s taking on a shape that was always destined. If anything, the future looks more open than ever—open to both glories and extinction. 

That’s why we need predictions that don’t just predict. Predictions are powerful ways to both understand the present and to move toward the future we want. 

Those sorts of predictions don’t reveal the future. They create it.