I’m trying to write something about prediction for Fast Company magazine. So far all I’ve got is this from Aston Webb, a Victorian architect, talking about London in the year 2014 from the perspective of 1914:

“There are two great railways stations, one for the north and one for the south. The great roads out of London are 120 feet wide, with two divisions, one for slow-moving and the other for fast-moving traffic; and there will be a huge belt of green fields surrounding London.”

The other thing I’m trying to weave in is a story I picked up last Saturday about some Dutch scientists being on the verge of being able to develop physical descriptions of criminals based on traces of DNA left at crime scenes. Apparently, a blood test can predict the age of a suspect plus or minus nine years. Meanwhile, researchers in the US are close to being able to predict skin colour and perhaps facial geometry via analysis of DNA sequences.

Could such tests eventually prove better than eyewitnesses? Some people seem to think so, although the issue of whether or not such tests could generate false predictions seems rather vital. There’s also the issue that if one can predict likely age, race and facial features, could they also be used in a kind of ‘Department of Future Crime’ way to predict criminal behaviour before it happens. i.e. could DNA tests predict future aggression or tendency to lie or steal?

BTW, I don’t have a copy with me, but I’m pretty sure that I outlined exactly such developments in my book Future Files back in 2007. How? I just read the right literature (New Scientist and Scientific American from memory), joined a few dots and made an educated guess. I’ll dig out my original text when I get a moment.