Predicting the Future

Predicting the future has been one of humanity's primary quests for millennia. Forces beyond our direct control influence our lives, and predictions allow us to control the ever-changing world around us to minimize risks to our lives. Before the age of enlightenment, humanity tried to grasp the unpredictability of existence with divination. They studied the movement of stars, animal entrails, tea leaves, and many other things to learn about their fate.

Since the scientific revolution, we no longer look at the stars, study tea leaves, or disembowel animals. Quantitative science is the most successful form of divination ever invented. Many methods are available to predict the future, from a simple linear regression model to more complex random forests and neural networks that are available to connect the past with the future.

Organizations that seek to reap the rewards of data science are often motivated by the capabilities of machine learning and other advanced techniques...