I predict that, whenever a bold prediction is issued or the matter of prediction the future discussed, at least one person will deride such efforts and say that the future is, strictly, unpredictable.
The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.
— Leo Tolstoy