Predictive technologies reflect our own desires rather than revealing the future

Evidence

Predictive theories can be compared to crystal balls, not in the sense that they show us the future, but in the sense that we gaze into them in the hopes of catching a glimpse of the future, and instead see a vision of ourselves reflected back at us. — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 166

Categorization

• APHORISMS: A compressed, reusable observation: predictive tools function as mirrors — when we consult forecasts or models, what returns is our own image.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living With…, 166
• XREF: connects to: Predictive theories reveal the speculator’s own image rather than the future — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 259; Predictive Big Data forecloses the future that freedom requires. — Byung-Chul Han, Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and New…, 40