# Predictions are Consequences of Explanations Predictions are Consequences of [Explanations](Explanations.md). [Explanationless Prediction Is Impossible](Explanationless%20Prediction%20Is%20Impossible.md).This is due to the fact that [Explanations Imply Consequences](Explanations%20Imply%20Consequences.md). To make a good prediction, one needs a good explanation. An explanation provides a set of constraints that highlights why things are the way they are. They *could* by any way, but they *are* this way. Why is that? Some set of constraints must be in place that make it so. You could float up into the sky the minute you walk out your door, but instead you stay planted on the ground. Why? Because the Earth has altered the [Curvature](Curvature.md) of [Spacetime](Spacetime.md). Your natural inertial path would be to follow that [Geodesic](Geodesic.md) and fall towards the earths center, but the ground beneath your feet prevents you from doing so. This is explained in striking detail by Einstein's theory of [General Relativity](General%20Relativity.md). If we were to make a prediction about what will happen to you the moment you set foot out of your door, it will really be the consequence of some explanation. That explanation may be a crude heuristic such as "I will stay planted on the ground because I have never seen any one float up into the clouds". Or it may be "I will stay planted on the ground because [General Relativity](General%20Relativity.md) says it will be so". The same goes for the predicting the location of a satellite. That will require explanations of mechanics and dynamics and the subsequent consequences of those explanations. A prediction is not just the output of some removed mathematical function that takes in a number and outputs a number. You always start with an explanation which is a constraint on how reality works. This constraint implies consequences. A prediction is just one of those consequences. Predictions are just one type of consequence of an explanation. There are also *logical* consequences. Several good examples of this are explored in [Defend Science by Arguing Against Arbitrary Boundaries](Defend%20Science%20by%20Arguing%20Against%20Arbitrary%20Boundaries.md). It can also be seen in the philosophy of [Positivism](Positivism.md) - a consequence of positivism is that, by its own criterion, it is meaningless. --- Date: 20250107 Links to: Tags: References: * []()