The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg EPUB

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The Stochastic Man by Robert Silverberg EPUB



Robert Silverberg's The Stochastic Man from the 70's is a chillingly prescient tale of the rise of forecasting, particularly political forecasting. The story itself takes place around the year 2000. The main character is one of the few who has discerned a method for probabilistic forecasting that makes him successful and highly sought after by an up and coming politician. Against this backdrop of a more permissive society at the turn of the millennium with regards to drugs and sex, the prognosticator meets and individual who really can see the future and is promised training in the skill resulting in his life taking unexpected and unforeseen (by him) turns.



The major sci-fi concept explored is about the nature of time itself and whether the universe is deterministic. The paradox inherent is never resolved in the that if the future is already pre-determined, then knowing that, leaves nothing to do to take advantage of. What Silverberg did nail was the rise of probability based forecasting especially with regards to politics.



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