DOOMSDAY predictions are funny things. We are predisposed to pay attention to bad news, and the news industry thrives on disasters. There is a good reason for this. We need to be warned of difficulty and danger so we can protect ourselves. Traffic reports do not dwell on empty roads – they tell us where the jams are. Forewarned is forearmed.
Yet our fascination is fickle. If the warning is too scary or distressing, we attack the messenger as a doom-monger. Take the 1972 book The Limits to Growth, one of the first efforts to predict the future using computer…
