History Main / PrescienceByAnalysis

* The BigBad of the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' franchise, [[spoiler:Junko Enoshima]], though they advertise themselves as being the Ultimate [[spoiler:Fashionista]] (and, of course, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ultimate Despair]]), their actual talent is [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Ultimate Analyst]]. Their analytical ability is so great that they can basically predict the future ([[spoiler:which is how she can be the Ultimate Fashionista, as she can predict what fashion trends are about to take off and get in on them early]]). This ability, however, has left them extremely bored with the world, since nothing comes as a surprise to them. This is what led them to become obsessed with the emotion of despair, as it is the one thing they found that makes people act in ways even ''they'' can't predict, and is therefore the only thing even remotely interesting or exciting to them. [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2GoodbyeDespair The second game]] has another example in [[spoiler:Izuru Kamukura]], who is this by virtue of having ''[[UltimateLifeForm every single talent known to man]]'' and has fallen into a level of boredom rivaling even the BigBad's.

* The BigBad of the ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'' franchise, [[spoiler:Junko Enoshima]], though they advertise themselves as being the Ultimate [[spoiler:Fashionista]] (and, of course, [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Ultimate Despair]]), their actual talent is [[AwesomenessByAnalysis Ultimate Analyst]]. Their analytical ability is so great that they can basically predict the future ([[spoiler:which is how she can be the Ultimate Fashionista, as she can predict what fashion trends are about to take off and get in on them early]]). This ability, however, has left them extremely bored with the world, since nothing comes as a surprise to them. This is what led them to become obsessed with the emotion of despair, as it is the one thing they found that makes people act in ways even ''they'' can't predict, and is therefore the only thing even remotely interesting or exciting to them.

* The backstory of ''Anime/TheOrbitalChildren'' features an AI known as Seven, which made statistical predictions of the future known as the "Seven Poems." Seven predicted that Earth's population would be reduced by over one-third, one of the [[AIIsACrapshoot factors]] leading to its deactivation. [[spoiler: But it later [[ProphecyTwist turned out to mean]] that they wouldn't die via a catastrophe, but leave Earth over the next several decades to live in space.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'' gives Alex Mann this ability. When his adrenaline reached a peak point, he could calculate what thing to do to defuse a situation (which usually involved an [[ExtremeSportExcusePlot extreme sports stunt of some kind]]). This ability also gave him an uncontrollable type of precognition. Coach Grey, the man responsible for Alex's ability, has a computer that can do the same on a larger scale.

It's a fairly common theme in science fiction, but thoroughly debunked in RealLife ever since [[ButterflyOfDoom chaos theory]] was developed.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* The Franchise/NasuVerse has two types of prescience, as detailed in the epilogue of ''LightNovel/TheGardenOfSinners'', one of which is essentially an ability to intuitively predict the most likely outcome of a particular chain of events based on all the minuscule clues and probabilities known by the "seer". Mikiya explains that this ability is not that different from how meteorologists predict weather.
* ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'': Shiro is a ChildProdigy capable of high level calculations. While her skills are useful in a lot of the games she and Sora compete together in, one of her greatest uses for it is in the realm of FPS games. After acquiring enough information, she can predict the movement and actions of her opponents to such an extent that to others she seems like she can see into the future. It's only when her opponents cheat that her calculations fail.
[[/folder]]

It's a fairly common theme in science fiction, but somewhat more impractical in RealLife, there have been several attempts like game theory, and of course basic statistics and probability in regards to random events, but there's always randomness that prevents any prediction from being correct 100% of the time.

Can involve SherlockScan or AwesomenessByAnalysis. Sometimes used for a PrecrimeArrest.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E09StatisticalProbabilities Statistical Probabilities]]", a group of genetically-enhanced savants are given access to secret war-related documents. They predict that the Dominion War will cost billions of lives, and to prevent such a loss of life they recommend that the Federation immediately surrender. Naturally, the Federation leaders do not accept the recommendation. They also predict that ultimately the Dominion will then be overthrown by a rebellion starting on Earth... but utterly fail to predict that the Dominion ''also'' predicted this and are planning to wipe out the planet (which the audience found out a few episodes previous in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Sacrifice of Angels]]". They try to force the issue by handing critical information over to the Dominion, but fail to predict that ''one of their own members'' would alert the authorities of the plan.

-->''"Success depends on forethought, dispassionate calculation of probabilities, accounting for every stray variable."''

-> '''Blue:''' “The Stategic Simulation Team's report is here.”\\
'''Red:''' “Thank you. Can you tell us whats's coming?”\\

[[quoteright:350:[[Comicbook/FantasticFour https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ff15_mad_thinker.jpg]]]]

* In ''Fanfic/AmazingFantasy'', Peter mentions that Reed Richards attempted this as part of his support for the Superhuman Registration Act. The problem was that it wasn't peer reviewed and [[{{Technobabble}} no one else could understand it but him]], which [[RealityEnsues destroys Reed's arguments when the SHRA was put on trial.]] He suffers a falling out with Sue for months afterward.

* ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': Among the many abilities granted to the Number Man is the ability to predict the future through probability, which he can use in combat to predict the moves of his enemies before they make them.

!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''LightNovel/NoGameNoLife'': Shiro is a ChildProdigy capable of high level calculations. While her skills are useful in alot of the games she and Sora compete together in, one of her greatest uses for it is in the realm of [=FPS=] games. After acquiring enough information, she can predict the movement and actions of her opponents to such an extent that to others she seems like she can see into the future. It's only when her opponents cheat that her calculations fail.

[[folder:Film]]
* ''{{Film/Pi}}'': Max Renn is a reclusive mathematician/numerologist who is trying to find the universal constant that will allow him to predict every pattern in nature. Specifically, a group of Wall Street bankers are funding his research to help them predict the stock market with perfect accuracy.
* In the ''[[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 Sherlock Holmes]]'' films starring Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Holmes has this as his trademark skill in combat situations. Before combat even begins, he can predict how a battle would play out to the exact mark thanks to him calculating the situation before hand. In his confrontation with Moriarty at the end of the second film, it's revealed that Moriarty has the same ability.

** ''{{Literature/Franchise}}'': Multivac has almost every datapoint it needs to predict how the citizens of America would vote in the election, and [[TheChooserOfTheOne selects Muller]] to fill in the gaps of its predictive abilities, thereby negating the need for anyone to vote at all.

--> "Given enough data and a computer capable of sufficient number of operations in unit time, the future is predictable, at least in terms of probabilities." -- Haround, numerologist

* ''{{Literature/Worm}}'': Among the many abilities granted to the Number Man is the ability to predict the future through probability, which he can use in combat to predict the moves of his enemies before they make them.

* All sufficiently powerful Immortals can do this in ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive''. Actually seeing into the future is impossible, but Immortals have incredible means of gathering information and get smarter with age. This means that they can extrapolate the outcome of most situations based on what they already know. Unfortunately, they also get increasingly unstable with age, leading to one mad Immortal trying to [[PrescienceIsPredictable trying to create situations so chaotic that she can't predict the outcome.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/ActionMan2000'' gave Alex Mann this ability. When his adrenaline reached a peak point, he could calculate what thing to do to defuse a situation (which usually involved an [[ExtremeSportExcusePlot extreme sports stunt of some kind]]). This ability also gave him an uncontrollable type of precognition. Coach Grey, the man responsible for Alex's ability, has a computer that can do the same on a larger scale.

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Futurama}}'': When Bender overclocks himself, he develops the ability to predict every possible outcome. He uses this ability to stop Mom's killbots, to predict when ceiling fans would fall on Zoidberg, and write down a detailed account of the future of Fry and Leela's relationship.

* The Franchise/NasuVerse has two types of prescience, as detailed in the epilogue of ''LightNovel/KaraNoKyoukai'', one of which is essentially an ability to intuitively predict the most likely outcome of a particular chain of events based on all the minuscule clues and probabilities known by the "seer". Mikiya explains that this ability is not that different from how meteorologists predict weather.

* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E09StatisticalProbabilities Statistical Probabilities]]", a group of genetically-enhanced savants are given access to secret war-related documents. They predict that the Dominion War will cost billions of lives, and to prevent such a loss of life they recommend that the Federation immediately surrender. Naturally, the Federation leaders do not accept the recommendation. They also predict that ultimately the Dominion will then be overthrown by a rebellion starting on Earth... but utterly fail to predict that the Dominion ''also'' predicted this and are planning to wipe out the planet (which the audience found out a few episodes previous in "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E06SacrificeOfAngels Sacrifice of Angels]]".

* In ''ComicBook/IncredibleHulk'', ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHercules'', and ''ComicBook/TotallyAwesomeHulk'', this is stated to be the "power/talent" of Amadeus Cho, the smartest kid in the world. He possesses a "hypermind" capable of making a seemingly endless number of calculations in his head within seconds, predicting what's going to happen.. [[PaintingTheMedium Visually, it appears as numbers and formulas floating in mid-air.]] Later, we learn that it runs in the family as his sister Maddie can do the same thing. In ''ComicBook/ChaosWar'', this was PlayedWith, as Cho and other super-intelligent characters (such as ComicBook/{{Galactus}}) accept that the BigBad Mikaboshi is unbeatable, but [[IdiotHero Hercules refuses to accept it.]]

* Milo in the ''Series/{{Fringe}}'' episode "[[Recap/FringeS03E03ThePlateau The Plateau]]" is a mentally handicapped man turned into a mathematical supergenius by an experimental drug. He goes on a killing spree against the doctors who want to wean him off, managing to do them in with RubeGoldbergHatesYourGuts "accidents" that seem unconnected to him. His attempt to kill Olivia only fails because she's from "our" universe and therefore makes different decisions than people in his.

* The infamous [[LostTechnology LosTech]] [[AttackDrone Space Defense]] [[RobotSoldier System]] from TabletopGame/BattleTech had a component that could be installed in the larger drone units called the [[FunWithAcronyms ATAC]], short for Autonomous Tactical Analysis Computer, capable of millions of calculations per second. It allowed the robots to make predictive analysis of the battlefield, and made retaking Terra a real pain when [[TheUsurper Stephan Armaris]] took over the Terran Hedgemony and turned the SDS against the Star League.

** ''Literature/FoundationSeries'': [[FictionalFieldOfScience Psychohistory]], a set of mathematical models developed by Hari Seldon, is used to predict the future. There are certain restrictions on its ability to work as a form of prophecy; (1) [[AbsurdlyHugePopulation Predictions can only be made for societies of a minimum size]], although experts in the field have successfully wielded it on a scale as small as individual people. (2) [[UnspokenPlanGuarantee The people whose actions are being predicted can't know what the prediction is.]] (3) That there would be no fundamental changes in human society over the next thousand years. Technology could advance, but not fundamentally alter the way human civilization functioned. (4) That human reaction to stimuli would remain constant. (This assumption was challenged in "Literature/TheMule", where the antagonist had a [[{{Mutants}} mutation]] giving him EmotionControl powers.) In addition, one more premise is deduced in ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth''; [[spoiler:psychohistory only predicts human reactions, [[BizzareAlienPsychology alien, including transhuman creatures]] are not predictable]].