Challenges and Limitations

Predictive analytics function entirely by using the value of predictive variables to determine the outcome of the variable being predicted. As a result, the ability of a model to make accurate predictions is dependent entirely on how many of the variables that influence the outcome being predicted have been identified, and whether each is being utilized properly within the model. Theoretically, all things can be predicted; every possible event and action are the result of variables that led up to that point and it will, in turn, be a factor that influences future events and actions. In the physical world, all things follow specific laws, allowing us to predict and even manipulate the evolution of plants and bacteria, the movement of the planets and asteroids, and even the weather. Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it has been established that even the behaviors exhibited by people, as well as the emotions they feel and the ideas they have are all the result of a combination of two things: the genetics they receive from their parents, and the things to which they are exposed to throughout their lives. Religion is a geographically inherited trait; if you were born in the Middle East you would almost certainly be Muslim, while if you were born anywhere throughout the Americas you’d likely be Christian.