Forecasts, disclosure and self-fulfilment
Oedipus Does the choice to avoid a prophecy create the conditions for the prophecy?
What this series asks
- Do people who learn of a prediction change the outcome?
- Whose choices does publication, or non-publication, close off?
- How do you tell a failed prediction apart from a successful intervention?
The questions
1 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 10 days until next month's staff schedule is setIf you announce the risk of closing, does the bookstore become more at risk?All 13 judgments agree
2 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 14 days until application counseling beginsIf you file your application after seeing a predicted passAll 13 judgments agree
3 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 72 hours until event route guidance is sentIf everyone is told the same detour, does everyone get faster?All 13 judgments agree
4 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 20 days until the next fundraising drive beginsIf you announce the crisis, will support gather or fall away?All 13 judgments agree
5 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 30 days until the commercial district study is releasedShould you publish the promising alley found through low rents?All 13 judgments agree
6 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 12 days until next quarter's task assignmentsIf reducing delays also reduces ambitionAll 13 judgments agree
7 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 6 months until the next 5-year school space planIf schools merge, do reasons to leave grow too?Split 9:2
8 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 35 days until the replication study call is announcedIf the assessment says replication is hard, will anyone left to check?All 13 judgments agree
9 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 20 days until the support program renewal reviewTwice the reports, twice the harm?All 13 judgments agree
10 · 2026 · Decision deadline: 45 days until next year's enrollment is finalizedWill the job still be promising in 18 months?All 13 judgments agree
11 · 2110 · Decision deadline: 1 year until the next 20-year support covenantA crisis averted, or a prediction that missed?All 13 judgments agree
12 · 2140 · Decision deadline: 6 months until the first public exhibitionIf a work not yet made looks like imitationAll 13 judgments agree
13 · 2082 · Decision deadline: 90 days until the next data participation covenantThe freedom to be left out of predictions, the risk of being left out of planningAll 13 judgments agree
14 · 2260 · Decision deadline: 3 years until the next 100-year resource covenantWhen Preparing for Posterity Shapes Posterity's ChoicesAll 13 judgments agree
15 · 2300 · Decision deadline: 120 days until joint construction resources are allocatedThe forecast keeps changing—when should the contract begin?All 13 judgments agree