Save the Date: “The Future of Future: On the Lure and Limits of Prediction”

Annual Meeting of the Fellows’ Club on June 13 and 14, 2024

 “Prediction is difficult, especially if it is about the future.”

This all-too-famous quote by the Danish physicist Niels Bohr is not only valid in our era of uncertainty. It points to the deep human desire to forecast what is to come – and to the shortcomings of all available methods. From ancient oracles to Christian prophecies, from early modern versions of stochastics to algorithmic prediction, the tools of forecasting are becoming ever more sophisticated, yet remain unsuited to truly control uncertainty. How do different disciplines face the challenge of foreseeing things to come? How is hypothesizing different from prediction? Can the past be a signpost for the future? Is artificial intelligence truly revolutionizing our ability to predict? And how can we avoid the pitfalls of predictions that tend to self-fulfill? This meeting with former and present Fellows will explore futures in different fields and the methods available to predict them. The program is still being finalized and only the future will reveal the details; but you can look forward to an inspiring panel on “Ways of Knowing,” to an excursion to the Berlin Futurium, to a meeting with one of Germany‘s leading climatologists, to discussions around thematic tables, and to an evening in the Wiko garden.