http://www.dontstop01.com/articles/if_you_knew_about_the_future.php
"Imagine this is the year 1920 and somehow you're able to predict the future. Chance has it you're visiting the mayor of Rotterdam and while staying there you're vividly describing changes that will occur in his city during the next 25 years. And then, in an otherwise ordinary day, he will hear about the dawn of the Weiner Republic, hyperinflation, the crash of Wall Street in 1929 and the great depression following it. He will hear about Nazi Germany with its self-governing economy devastating to Rotterdam, the breakout of WW2 and the massive bombing of his city, and finally the complete destruction of the city harbour in the dreadful winter of 1945. The mayor remains calm. He absorbs the information and seems to find your predictions credible. And then he asks: If you were in my place hearing all this, and hearing all the other opinions and facts I receive every day, how would you expect me to use this information?"
Aries de Geus told this story about the mayor and finally addressed the question to the audience at the conference 'In the Long Run' in Berlin (it's also available in his appraised book The Living Company). A hush fell on the room. And the apparent conclusion was the same as Aries de Geus always reaches when he poses the question for a group: We can't expect the mayor to do anything with the information.
The future can't be predicted
Even though the information about the future was much more credible than usual, the mayor would neither have the courage nor the power to persuade others about the prediction of Rotterdam's future and thus act upon it.(...)
