Can the future really be predicted?

For several decades, researchers have heatedly debated the statistical properties of real-world time series. On one end of the spectrum, researchers put forward that the majority of the real-world time series are nondeterministic and that some of them exhibit ‘random walk’; these researchers advoca...

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Main Author: Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw
Format: Conference or Workshop Item
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/7/zawzawCanFuture.pdf
id iium-34339
recordtype eprints
spelling iium-343392015-06-01T01:38:19Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/ Can the future really be predicted? Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw Q Science (General) For several decades, researchers have heatedly debated the statistical properties of real-world time series. On one end of the spectrum, researchers put forward that the majority of the real-world time series are nondeterministic and that some of them exhibit ‘random walk’; these researchers advocate that real-world time series are unpredictable. On the other end of the spectrum, researchers have devoted their entire careers trying to predict time series based on the past history of the time series. A variety of time series prediction techniques have been widely used in domains such as weather forecasting, electric power demand forecasting, earthquake forecasting, and financial market forecasting. As real-world time series are affected by a multitude of interrelating macroscopic and microscopic variables, the underlying models that generate these time series are nonlinear and extremely complex. Therefore, it is computationally infeasible to develop full-scale models with the present computing technology. As a result, researchers have resorted to smaller-scale models. Despite advances in forecasting technology over the past few decades, there have not been algorithms that can consistently produce accurate predictions with statistical significance. Therefore, this position paper investigates whether real-world time series are deterministic or nondeterministic. This paper argues that nondeterminism does exist and that real-world time series exhibit unpredictability. As a result, consistently accurate time series prediction can be considered to be impossible. However, short-term time series prediction may be possible temporarily if one could somehow discover a simple model that can momentarily represent anintricate system. Keywords: Determinism; nondeterminism 2013-09 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/7/zawzawCanFuture.pdf Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw (2013) Can the future really be predicted? In: 17th Conference on Signal Processing Algorithms, Architectures, Arrangements, and Applications (SPA 2013) , 26-28 Sep 2013, Poznań, POLAND . http://www.spaconference.org.pl
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution International Islamic University Malaysia
building IIUM Repository
collection Online Access
language English
topic Q Science (General)
spellingShingle Q Science (General)
Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw
Can the future really be predicted?
description For several decades, researchers have heatedly debated the statistical properties of real-world time series. On one end of the spectrum, researchers put forward that the majority of the real-world time series are nondeterministic and that some of them exhibit ‘random walk’; these researchers advocate that real-world time series are unpredictable. On the other end of the spectrum, researchers have devoted their entire careers trying to predict time series based on the past history of the time series. A variety of time series prediction techniques have been widely used in domains such as weather forecasting, electric power demand forecasting, earthquake forecasting, and financial market forecasting. As real-world time series are affected by a multitude of interrelating macroscopic and microscopic variables, the underlying models that generate these time series are nonlinear and extremely complex. Therefore, it is computationally infeasible to develop full-scale models with the present computing technology. As a result, researchers have resorted to smaller-scale models. Despite advances in forecasting technology over the past few decades, there have not been algorithms that can consistently produce accurate predictions with statistical significance. Therefore, this position paper investigates whether real-world time series are deterministic or nondeterministic. This paper argues that nondeterminism does exist and that real-world time series exhibit unpredictability. As a result, consistently accurate time series prediction can be considered to be impossible. However, short-term time series prediction may be possible temporarily if one could somehow discover a simple model that can momentarily represent anintricate system. Keywords: Determinism; nondeterminism
format Conference or Workshop Item
author Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw
author_facet Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw
author_sort Htike@Muhammad Yusof, Zaw Zaw
title Can the future really be predicted?
title_short Can the future really be predicted?
title_full Can the future really be predicted?
title_fullStr Can the future really be predicted?
title_full_unstemmed Can the future really be predicted?
title_sort can the future really be predicted?
publishDate 2013
url http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/
http://irep.iium.edu.my/34339/7/zawzawCanFuture.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:30Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T20:49:30Z
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