WSC 2025

Flashcards on lecture notes about the future, predictions, and imagination.

Rip Van Winkle

A fictional character who slept for twenty years and grew some facial hair.

Steve Rogers

Slept for seventy years.

Aang

Slept for a hundred years.

Slice of life

A film genre that involves researching everyday life in different time periods.

Re-ignited

The act of exciting passions or feelings about something again.

Moore's Law

A belief that social and technological progress will continue endlessly.

Robert Browning

An English poet who wrote 'The best is yet to be'.

A Tale of Two Cities

A book where individuals can be recalled to life in different ways.

Australia

A country with an ambitious project to provide super-fast fiber-based Internet which was later revised.

Canada

A proposed high-speed rail network that had its target speed slashed before being rebranded as a high frequency network.

Loneliness epidemic

The idea that social distancing is the problem and a pressing global health threat.

Charles Guiteau

A man who assassinated American President James Garfield and was certain they had a close personal connection.

Information overload

The oversaturation of news, especially of negative stories, leading to constant stress and a skewed worldview.

Nostradamus

A person known for accurate prophecies.

Haruspicy

An ancient divination technique.

Ornithomancy

An ancient divination technique involving birds.

Alectryomancy

An ancient divination technique involving chickens.

Pyro-osteomancy

An ancient divination technique involving bones and fire.

Oneiromancy

An ancient divination technique involving dreams.

Bibliomancy

An ancient divination technique involving books.

Hydromancy

An ancient divination technique involving water.

Astragalomancy

An ancient divination technique involving dice.

Scyphomancy

An ancient divination technique involving bowls.

Palmistry

A future-telling occupation involving the palm of the hand.

Physiognomy

A future-telling occupation involving the face.

Ceromancy

A future-telling occupation involving wax.

Tasseography

A future-telling occupation involving tea leaves.

Cartomancy

A future-telling occupation involving cards.

Michio Kaku

A theoretical physicist who predicts the future.

Barnum effect

The tendency to accept generalized personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to oneself.

Pygmalion effect

The phenomenon whereby others' expectations of a target person affect the target person's performance.

Cold reading

A set of techniques used to appear psychic by using generalities and observations.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true.

Determinism

The belief that all events are ultimately determined by causes external to the will.

Chinese agricultural calendar

A calendar based on centuries of observing the weather and the movement of celestial bodies

Metonic cycle

A cycle of 235 lunar months, used to reconcile lunar and solar calendars.

Antikythera mechanism

An ancient Greek mechanism used to predict astronomical positions and eclipses.

Meteorology

The study of the atmosphere and weather forecasting.

Climate

The long-term average of weather conditions in a region.

Chaos theory

A theory that studies how complex systems are built up from simple parts.

Emergence

The arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns, and properties in complex systems.

Self-organization

A process in which a pattern emerges in a system without intentional control by an external agent.

De-centralization

The distribution of functions and governance away from a central authority.

Feedback

The process in which part of the output of a system is returned to its input in order to regulate its further output.

Chaotic systems

A system in which small changes can have large impacts.

Sensitivity

A term meaning the degree to which a system's behavior is affected by tiny changes in initial conditions.

Fashion cycle

A cycle that describes the rise, peak, and fall of popularity for clothing and accessories.

Nostalgia cycle

A nostalgic sentiment or longing for something in the past.

News cycle

The pattern in which news stories are reported and then fade from public attention.

Business cycle

Fluctuations in economic activity, such as periods of expansion and contraction.

Market cycle

The rise and fall of stock prices or other investments.

Moore’s law

The observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit doubles about every two years.

Eroom’s law

The observation that research productivity (e.g. new drug approvals) tends to decline over time despite increasing investment.

Platform decay

A technology that leaves the market after a period of success, often due to being replaced by something new.

Bathtub curve of electronics

A curve of electronics in which failure rates are high at the beginning and end of the product's life.

Nomadic war machine

A geopolitical term about nomadic warriors.

Rocket mail

A type of mail which existed in the past involving missles to carry the required package.

Francis Fukuyama

An academic who suggested we might have reached the end of history

New Age movement

A revival in the interest of occult and metaphysical ideas.

Filofei

A Russian monk that proposed that Russia could be the third Rome.

Unipolarity

A geopolitical state where one state exerts cultural, economic, or military influence over other countries.

Multipolarity

A geopolitical state where several states exert cultural, economic, or military influence over other countries.

Core vs. periphery

A geopolitical concept where states are classified as core (dominant) or periphery (subordinate).

Great vs. small powers

A geopolitical concept where states are classified as great (dominant) or small powers (subordinate).

Controlling vs. client state

A geopolitical concept where a state exercises power through control or influence over another state.

Soft power

A geopolitical concept where the power is displayed through culture or economic influence.

Hard power

A geopolitical concept where the power is displayed through military.

Foreign assistance

Aid given by one country to another.

Second chances at imperial grandeur

The idea of reviving a great empire after it has fallen.

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series

A series where the great Galactic Empire is falling and a man who can predict the future using math comes up with a plan.

Librarian

A professional who helps restart a great civilization in the Foundation series.

Pan Am

A once-legendary airline brand that is planning to be de-extincted for expensive charter flights.

Vintage technology resurgence

The revival of vintage technologies, often driven by viral online trends that celebrate their limitations.

De-extinction (artistic)

The act of bringing back artistic and musical pieces, sometimes unsuccessfully.

Combustion

The process of rapid oxidation of a substance, producing heat and light.

Flash point

The minimum temperature at which a liquid gives off vapor sufficient to form an ignitable mixture with air.

Convection

The transfer of heat by the movement of a fluid (gas or liquid).

Fire triangle

The three elements needed to start and sustain a fire: fuel, heat, and oxygen.

Fire tetrahedron

The four elements required for a fire to exist: fuel, heat, oxygen, and a chemical chain reaction.

Flame

The luminous, visible part of a fire.

Fuel

Material that can burn.

Greek fire

A deadly weapon in Byzantine Greece.

Napalm

An explosive, incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical.

Thermite

A pyrotechnic composition of metal powder that produces intense heat when ignited.

White phosphorus

A form of phosphorus that ignites spontaneously in air and burns fiercely.

Macrauchenia

A prehistoric animal which might have been cooked by early humans using fire.

New Year’s Eve fireworks accident

A tragic event where fireworks killed many.

Tending a fire

The act of putting more wood in the fire to keep it from going out.

Naïve

An approach to peace that is seen as overly optimistic.

Fireside chats

A series of radio broadcasts delivered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the American public.

Resuscitation

The effort to revive someone after apparent death.

Resurrection

The bringing of someone back to life after being dead.

Valhalla

In Norse mythology, a majestic hall where warriors who die in battle are received.

Tartarus

In Greek mythology, a deep, gloomy abyss used as a dungeon of torment and suffering.

Diyu

In Chinese mythology, the realm of the dead.

Jigoku

In Buddhism, the hell realm characterized by suffering and torment.

Nirvana

In Buddhism, a state of perfect peace and happiness, free from suffering.

Samsara

In Hinduism and Buddhism, the cycle of death and rebirth.

Happy hunting ground

In some Native American cultures, an afterlife where spirits continue to hunt and live in harmony.