Almanac publications are practical guides for navigating the future, comprising calendars, maps, forecasts, tables, unit conversions, folklore, and other useful information. Almanacs have been in print circulation since at least the 17th century, with almanac-like artifacts such as maps, tablets, and ledgers dating back millennia in many cultures around the world. They are still published to this day in areas such as farming, nautical navigation, and finance. Journalist Adrienne Lafrance argues [1] that The Old Farmer's Almanac is an early prototype for the Internet. The yearly publication served the same functions as a smartphone, such as offering weather predictions, and occupied a similar cultural space. Almanacs are products of a cultural imaginary where the cosmos directly informs events on Earth. Examples include weather-prediction models based on sun-spot activity and the origins of statistics in astronomical science, as well as moon cycles and divination practices such as astrology. Since the first issue of the The Old Farmer's Almanac in 1792, parts of this cosmic imaginary of data and prediction have been amplified and legitimized-they are now called data analytics, or even artificial intelligence. Other parts, such as astrology, have been discarded as illegitimate forms of speculation in breach of scientific rationality.
展开▼
