Ian Evendeninvestigates how supercomputers
and machine learning are revolutionizing the
science of predicting extreme weather events.
THE MAMBILAPEOPLE, who live across
Cameroon and Nigeria in West Africa,
like to watch the movements of crabs
and spiders. As part of a practice called
Nggam, a stick and a stone representing
a binary choice are offered to the multi-
legged creatures, along with some cards
placed between them. This is all part of a
plan to tell the future.
The wisdom-seekers leave the cards
intact for up to 15 minutes, during
which time the crab or spider may have
come out of its hole and disturbed the
cards, producing a pattern that can be
interpreted. If particular cards have been
moved toward the stick or the stone, then
that choice is bound to become reality.
Elsewhere, some people still believe
to this day that the position of the stars
and planets at the time of their birth has
an effect on their future. While in ancient
Rome, a haruspex consulted the entrails
of sacrificed animals to gain insight into
what was about to happen.
In Victorian England, the Hermetic
Order of the Golden Dawn played a four-
player variant of chess in an attempt to
predict future events, while the Ancient
Greeks practiced dracomancy (predicting
the future by way of dragons), though it’s
not clear where they found them.
Of course, another way to predict the
future is to use computers.
PREDICTING THE
UNPREDICTABLE
HOL 2021 MAXIMUMPC 37
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