From Stars to Servers: Humanity’s Eternal Chase for the Future
Prophecy, astrology, divination, rituals…
Humanity has always burned with the wish to know the future. People sought to interpret the length of a ruler’s life from the stars. They guessed the outcome of wars from the flight of birds. They even discerned the direction of love from coffee grounds.
In China, dice were cast to decode the spirit of the time. In Central Asia, molten lead was poured and the shape it took was seen as a sign from the future. Even in the Ottoman palaces, people read the language of the “ab-ı hayat” (the water of life). They did this by gazing into bowls of water.
All these rituals were essentially attempts to navigate uncertainty.
Sometimes they guided the fate of a tribe, sometimes the war decisions of an emperor.
But prophecy always relied on interpretation, ritual, and—most importantly—belief. The future was not a realm to dominate, but a mystery filled with meaning.
Then modernity arrived.
The age of rationality, determinism, measurement, and data.
Prophecy gave way to statistics, intuition to algorithms.
Soothsayers were replaced by data scientists, fortune-telling by predictive models.
And today, we are facing the most ambitious prophet in history: Artificial Intelligence.
The Future According to AI
Today, we no longer look at star charts to foresee the future—we look at massive datasets.
A person’s credit score, purchasing habits, social media interactions, and genetic profile are all collected. This data is processed by a system. The system makes one bold claim: We are predicting the future.
The foundation of data science spans many fields, from physics to statistical models. At its core is the assumption: “If the past contains a pattern, the future will behave similarly.”
AI systems digitize this determinism.
A person’s credit history, payment behavior, or social media data is transformed into a “risk score.” This score predicts their future. This score determines their access to credit, chances of employment, or place in public policy.
The past becomes the guarantee of the future.
If a student had good grades in the past, they’re expected to be a good student in the future! (We all name hundreds of counter examples, right?)
Michel Foucault’s insight is especially relevant here:
“Knowledge is not merely a tool of power—it is power itself.”
In other words: knowledge is power.
AI’s predictions of the future are not neutral.
They are models that carry continue the social structures embedded in past data.
Every prediction is a form of intervention.
And every intervention creates a relationship of power.
So, AI doesn’t just predict the future—it defines who gets to have what future.
Probability, Not Freedom
In this worldview, the future becomes a mechanical extension of the past.
There is no freedom, only probability.
Humans are condemned to the futures designed—and now declared as unbiased truth—by algorithms.
Any anomaly or uncertainty in predictions is seen as an error to be fixed.
Yet human experience is full of uncertainty, contradiction, and irrationality.
And freedom begins exactly there: in the realm of the unpredictable.
Conclusion: The Limits of Artificial Prophecy
The longing to predict the future through AI is strong. Humanity is re-establishing its ancient relationship with destiny. This time, it is not through gods but through machines.
Every algorithm is written from a particular point of view.
Every dataset is a product of a specific past.
Every prediction constructs a normative future.
Prediction is not innocent.
To know the future is to wish to control it.
Knowledge is not merely a tool—it is a will.
Thus, questioning AI’s prophetic power is not merely a technical issue—it is an ethical, political, and philosophical necessity.
What must be done?
To go beyond prediction.
To imagine.
And most importantly:
We must defend a future. It is not solely created by those who design algorithms. It is also created by those who feel, think, and hope.