"It's rare for a book on public affairs to say something genuinely new, but Future Babble is genuinely arresting, and should be required reading for journalists, politicians, academics, and anyone who listens to them. Mark my words: if Future Babble is widely read, then within 3.7 years the number of overconfident predictions by self-anointed experts talking through their hats will decline by 46.2%, and the world will become no less than 32.1% wiser."

— Steven Pinker, Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Stuff of Thought

"Delicious...a trove of detailed research."

— Trevor Butterworth, Wall Street Journal

"Wonderfully perspicacious."

— Ronald Bailey, Reason

"It is a tour de force. Absolutely outstanding."

— Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist

"Gardner squeezes a heavy dose of fascinating social science and recent history into a quick, smooth read that greatly illuminates our penchant for prediction.... In short, it really is an excellent book that anyone who is into the social sciences would enjoy. I highly recommend it."

— Jesse Singal, Boston Globe

"...knocks the stuffing out of those irritating and pontificating experts on everything."

— Alan Gold, The Australian

"...an entertaining, well researched guide to decades of totally wrong predictions from eminent figures."

— Bernd Debusmann, Reuters

"A witty, lively debunking of wrong-headed predictions about the future by 'experts' -- and why we frequently fail to notice their spectacularly dumb mistakes."

— Maclean's magazine, which chose Future Babble as the #2 non-fiction book of 2010.

"The prose is light and humorous, yet the research and insights are sharp and powerful."

— Melbourne Herald Sun

"Exhilirating.... a bracingly enjoyable book."

— Francis Wheen, Literary Review

"Well-researched, well-reasoned, and engagingly written. I'm not making any predictions, but we can only hope that this brilliant book will shock the human race, and particularly the chattering expert class, into a condition of humility about proclamations about the future."

— John Mueller, Author of Overblown and Political Scientist, Ohio State University

"As Yogi Berra observed, 'it's tough to make predictions, especially about the future.' In this brilliant and engaging book, Dan Gardner shows us how tough forecasting really is, and how easy it is to be convinced otherwise by a confident expert with a good story. This is must reading for anyone who cares about the future."

— Paul Slovic, Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon

"If you are paying a lot of money for forecasting services—be they crystal ball gazers or math modelers or something in between—put your orders on hold until you have had a chance to read this book—a rare mix of superb scholarship and zesty prose. You may want to cancel, or at least re-negotiate the price. For the rest of us who are just addicted to what experts are telling us everyday in every kind of media about what the future holds, Future Babble will show you how to be a bit smarter than what you usually hear."

— Philip Tetlock, Author of Expert Political Judgement and Mitchell Professor of Organizational Behavior, Hass School of Business, University of California

"If you are interested in the future of the society in which you live, you must buy this book. It is not often you stumble across an accessible analytical work that is so original it approaches genius."

— Richard Sherbaniuk, Edmonton Journal

"Compelling stuff...Future Babble is chock-a-block with examples amusing and distressing."

— Globe and Mail

"A masterful dissection of teleological fallacies...and also a freaking blast."

— Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail

"Dan Gardner is one of the country's few genuinely thoughtful newspaper columnists."

— Jordan Timm

"Future Babble is a bracing, perspicacious and ultimately devastating case for the inability of our so-called seers to call it right."

— Barron's