From the Editors: The Future Ain´t What It Used to Be

A fanciful way to describe the difference between magic and science is by way of humankind’s relationship with the gods. Magic, in this view, is an attempt to force the gods to do what we humans want, but science is an attempt to determine what the gods will do next. Put another way, magic pays little attention to discovering causes of various outcomes, because practitioners of magic believe (or appear to believe) that apparent causes have little to do with observed outcomes. Science, in contrast, is all about discovering causes. But what about prediction? Is Yogi Berra´s quote in the title of this column as true today as it was when he first uttered it?