The power of the ever-increasing tools and algorithms for prediction and their paradoxical
effects on risk. The Age of Prediction is about two powerful and symbiotic trends: the rapid
development and use of artificial intelligence and big data to enhance prediction as well as
the often paradoxical effects of these better predictions on our understanding of risk and the
ways we live. Beginning with dramatic advances in quantitative investing and precision medicine
this book explores how predictive technology is quietly reshaping our world in fundamental ways
from crime fighting and warfare to monitoring individual health and elections. As prediction
grows more robust it also alters the nature of the accompanying risk setting up unintended
and unexpected consequences. The Age of Prediction details how predictive certainties can bring
about complacency or even an increase in risks—genomic analysis might lead to unhealthier
lifestyles or a GPS might encourage less attentive driving. With greater predictability also
comes a degree of mystery and the authors ask how narrower risks might affect markets
insurance or risk tolerance generally. Can we ever reduce risk to zero? Should we even try?
This book lays an intriguing groundwork for answering these fundamental questions and maps out
the latest tools and technologies that power these projections into the future sometimes using
novel cross-disciplinary tools to map out cancer growth people’s medical risks and stock
dynamics.
