The Guardian has a fun article reviewing the book History's Worst Predictions. Key quote:
"As a new book, History's Worst Predictions, by Eric Chaline, shows, everyone from ancient prophets to modern futurologists have, more often than not, got the future spectacularly wrong."
I really like the article's (and the book's) comparison of modern futures techniques to those used during the Roman Empire:
"Futurologists now use complex computer models to make predictions but, as Chaline puts it, computers are often no better at discerning the future than "a sheep with a peculiarly shaped liver".
Computer models may not be more accurate, but they're a lot less messy.
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