Diving quickly in and out (no time) of this fascinating cats cradle of thoughts and ideas, how about "prescient" as THE WORD.

There was a sci-fi book (or may be a trilogy?) by James Blish called "The Flying Cities" or some such title. Very imaginative tales about the cities of earth having outlived their usefulness in an age gone back to its agrarian roots. The cities up and left to go and look for work, taking themselves off into space with the aid of a device called a spindizzy. The mayor of New York was the hero - someone mentioned deja vu? - and the final ending occurred one nanosecond past "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". Can anyone confirm the title?

dxb