Predicting the Unpredictable

Chaos--predicting the unpredictable.

This short article describes some of the features and history of chaos theory, with emphasis on its implications for predictability in general, and some thoughts on how these ideas might have an impact on medicine. In particular, it is suggested that inability to predict who will contract which diseases, or who will respond to which treatments, may be intrinsic, rather than simply due to incomp...

Predicting the unpredictable.

The collective behavior of people in crowds, markets, and organizations has long been a mystery. Why, for instance, do employee bonuses sometimes lead to decreases in productivity? Why do some products generate tremendous buzz, seemingly out of nowhere, while others languish despite multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns? How could a simple clerical error snowball into a catastrophic loss that...

T-wave alternans: predicting the unpredictable?

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) due to ventricular arrhythmias has a high morbidity and mortality. It is no wonder that cardiologists, rather than patching up survivors, are dedicated to finding predictors of cardiac electrical instability to prevent SCD. The implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) has evolved as the ultimate strategy for sudden arrhythmic death. In secondary prevention, individuals...

The art and science of heart failure: predicting the unpredictable.

Predicting the Unpredictable: 75 Years of Experimental Evidence

From time immemorial, people have reported foreknowledge of future events. To determine whether such experiences are best understood via conventional explanations, or whether a retrocausal phenomenon might be involved in some instances, researchers have conducted hundreds of controlled laboratory experiments over the past 75 years. These studies fall into four general classes, and each class ha...