What if there was a machine with which you could better predict the future? And not only predict, but also influence it by clever intervention? A new branch of science is emerging that seems to be possible.

Professor of Complexity Science Peter Sloot (UvA) explains in the new Future Affairs podcast about this innovative mix of psychology, physics and computer science, and about his projects in Singapore and the Netherlands. He's doing Simcity-like simulations of cities and countries, “digital cloning", to predict how social problems such as crime, social segregation and sea level rise will go - and what interventions can best be addressed with.. What can we do with that technique? And do we have to want to?

Intervention in the future