Broadcast — Perfect Model: Prediction, Science and Aesthetics

The Cutting Edge lectures are organized to foster communication between scientists in different disciplines as well as between scientists and the public.

Mankind has always wanted to predict the future. Today we rely on mathematical models to forecast the weather, the spread of diseases, the economy, and much else. But despite huge investments in manpower and technology, we still find it hard to anticipate complex systems – as our recent difficulties with climate change, flu pandemics, or the credit crunch have shown. This talk takes an overview of the history and the challenges of prediction, and argues that our search for the “perfect model” often reveals as much about our sense of aesthetics as it does about the future.