Physicks of Prophecy: Divination Technologies and the Human Appetite for Tomorrow

Physicks of Prophecy is an erudite and whimsical voyage through humanity’s relentless attempt to peer around the corner of time. Across seventy-three short pieces, oracle bones, cloud-qi, the I Ching, cheese, birds, mirrors, prediction markets, and machine learning become instruments of thought. Each carries its own theory of causality, consciousness, authority, and chance.

Framed as an imaginary field guide, historical inquiry wanders into philosophical fable, speculative report, impossible archives, and quiet absurdity. Emperors consult the sky, ancient states place auspicious clouds on the payroll, destiny struggles under poor clerical support, and swallows over the Ganges offer too certain omens.

Predictive AI sits squarely within this unruly tradition: systems built on the accumulated past, now tasked with anticipating—and altering—human behavior. What happens when a forecasting engine becomes an active agent in the world it predicts, or attempts to calculate its own future?

Playful, incisive, and periodically alarming, Physicks of Prophecy examines our infinite appetite for tomorrow and the power we grant to whatever claims to map it.