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Originally Posted by Boerseun
I don't think there's anything special to these individuals. I think it's merely a matter of us remembering the successful predictions, and forgetting the gazillion wrong ones.
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In my opinion that would be contrary to the spirit of science!
Let me explain, A prediction like those of sci-fi authors are like extrapolations, people know certain facts in science and think about what may be possible, perhaps a much more more imaginatively then the average. Now, all scientists indulge in extrapolations, in fact extrapolation is a very often a valid tool of science. But, as we know statistically all extrapolations are not always valid. There is a limit upto which extrapolations would work.
The Time machine imagined by Wells is perhaps an extrapolation beyond limits, but the predictions about the submarines by Verne or the communicator (the mobile phone) in the Star Trek are extrapolations from valid scientific principles known at time.
Innovations in technology is invariably through the visions of some extraordinary people who dare to dream, on the grounds of their scientific understanding.
Predictions based on astrological readings or palmistry on the other hand can at best be attributed to extraordinary intuition, a subject that has as yet not been fully explored by the science to date
