Predicting Future Duration from Present Age: A Critical Assessment
arXiv:astro-ph/0001414 · doi:10.1080/001075100181105
Abstract
Using a temporal version of the Copernican principle, Gott has proposed a statistical predictor of future longevity based on present age [J. R. Gott III, Nature 363, 315 (1993)] and applied the predictor to a variety of examples, including the longevity of the human species. Though Gott's proposal contains a grain of truth, it does not have the universal predictive power that he attributes to it.
17 pages, standard LaTeX; to be published in Contemporary Physics