‘Email will never catch on’: why are we so bad at predicting the future? | Anne Perkins

A Whitehall official’s pronouncement in 1994 reflects an age-old problem: how to imagine a different worldWho can resist this hinge in time, when one year ends and another begins, without indulging in a bit of light speculation about the future, if only to contemplate where, if anywhere, on Earth might be a safe space at the end of March.This interregnum between Christmas and new year is also when Whitehall’s records of old arguments and negotiations and decisions are released, at le