The term expressing the linear extension of the present into the future is extrapolation, -
sparteyeI dunno sparteye, we
extrapolate almost continually and so a more confining term might be needed. How about
base projection? Naw, that kinda thinking might actually be functional. What shona wants is a sorta derisive term that will point out the folly of basing long term predictions on the nature of events and things of today, you know like -
presentdiction. For example, I was guilty of
presentdicting when for twenty years I saved up bond money to spring my children from jail and then they wasted it on a college education.
But maybe an even better term might be
paradigmation. I was guilty of
paradigming way back in 1952. As a street urchin who was running the streets wearing an ice-cream container space cadet helmet when a
Birmingham News reporter, in search of human interest story, asked me for my prediction of when men would first land on the moon.
"By the year 1960", I said, "and definitely by 1968."
The next day my friends and teachers and relatives saw my picture and my prediction in the
Birmingham News. They all had a big laugh.
And rightly so, everyone today knows that mankind didn't land on the moon until [edited] July, long into the year of 1969. -
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