https://xkcd.com/2889/

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Once he had the answer, Arrhenius complained to his friends that he’d “wasted over a full year” doing tedious calculations by hand about “so trifling a matter” as hypothetical CO2 concentrations in far-off eras (quoted in Crawford, 1997).

  • kromem@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    from various factors

    Like the compounding gains from the individual revolution.

    In general, a common mistake among would be futurists is not correctly identifying when there are changes in the acceleration of advancements.

    It’s not only about measuring the rate of change of the present moment, but also how that rate has shifted over time until now and forecasting that forward. And even then seeing if there’s been a change in the rate of acceleration.

    The majority only look at the rate of change in the present moment.

    Compounding effects often fly under the radar in predictions.

    • mcmoor@bookwormstory.social
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      9 months ago

      And also the inverse. Some optimistic scifi thinks we would already reach Alpha Centauri by now. Predicting the future in general is hard af.