Limits to prediction in science and design science

Abstract

Design, it is argued, is inextricably bound up with the idea of science for, in carrying out design, the present as embodied in scientific knowledge forms the starting point for inventing the future. One bridge between science and design is thus contained in the notion of prediction which reveals the inevitable tensions between these activities. Prediction is concerned with the likely and possible future, design is concerned with the desirable one. Paradoxes contained therein are first explored in methodological terms and then the limits posed by scientific prediction are charted by examples using predictive computer models in urban planning.