Andrew Goodwin: Advisers should help shape the future, not predict it

Greetings, my friends! We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives! These are the opening lines from Plan 9 from Outer Space, a film regularly hailed as the worst of all time. Made in 1957 by the indomitable Ed Wood, it tells the story – to use the word loosely – of an extraterrestrial attempt to stop the Earth developing a doomsday weapon. For reasons that never quite become clear, the aliens decide the best way to carry out their plot is to resurrect the dead. Despite possessing superintelligence, they manage to revive ...