Bruce the Doomsayer on History Channel

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita (Bruce the Good Mosquito), gets credited on Brad Meltzer's Decoded: 2012 for predicting that the world will end in 2012. Once again, the History Channel does not seem to be able to actually talk to the man. We believe he is in a CIA bunker.

We were finally able to hear Bruce's voice, but at TED. Here is the video:Bruce Bueno de Mesquita predicts Iran's future | Video on TED.com. Not exactly doomsaying, but interesting. There is another video on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart that is at least funny.

We just ordered Bruce's last book: The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future. There is a lot of info in this book that would let you do what Bruce does, predict doom. We have our own end of the world prediction software half written!

Oddly, the key part of Bruce's technique is game theory. We would have preferred pseudoscience or religion. We would have been happy with throwing the finger bones of a hanged man too. This math stuff gets in the way of fear, uncertainty, and doubt you need for proper doomsaying. How do you get people to run naked and screaming in the streets when the result is 2.3.

Have they found me out?

The New Scientist is showing that they are prejudiced against the shortcut thinkers of this world with the latest opinion piece: How to spot a hidden religious agenda.  Why can't they leave pseudoscientists alone?

I find this sort of pseudoscience witch hunt to be offensive. Especially to witches! What happened to the good old days when we used to hunt witches? Now we hunt a lot of other stuff and the net result is no marshmallow roast. When are people going to get it through their thick  heads that only witches burn well enough to roast marshmallows!

I can make up anything I want and call it science. Sure it's science fiction and fantasy science flavored science, but it uses that science word, right? Same goes for those other greats, like Nostradamus or John of Patmos. Sometimes we need to believe that this is real so that we write better. 

You just can't make a buck as a doomsayer if you use real science. Erich von Däniken couldn't have been a best selling author by disproving aliens built the pyramids. You have to believe you see aliens or all you see is boring reality.

I'd go on and on about this. However I have another appointment and a bag of marshmallows that need to be roasted.