Description: A discussion of the new goals and dimensions of the Forecasting & Futurism Newsletter.

Description: This article is a review of the book by Joshua Foer. It covers the history of memory techniques, the way a human brain organizes memory, and various problems and successes in memory recall. The author starts by interviewing memory savants, and learns from them that the ability to perform seemingly impossible memory tricks is simply a matter of studying and practicing proven techniques used for millennia. This review suggests that actuaries can benefit greatly from some of these techniques despite the availability of electronic hand-held devices to recall facts because the person who does not need to rely upon such devices can have a huge perceptual advantage in executive presentations.

Description: Summary of the excellent Abstract serve provided to M&PD section members

Description: Summary of all issue articles, with theme of recognizing limits of classical actuarial methods.

Description: The author provides an overview of terms that have gained favor in sociology, physics, engineering and anthropology that should be of interest to actuaries.

Description: Alternative sources of learning available for free or at low cost if you wish to round out your F&F education about machine learning, artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms and the millennia of biological advances we draw from when we use these techniques.

Description: Continuation of a tutorial on Fuzzy (vs. Boolean, or 'crisp') logic and how you can use it to create actuarial models that better fit the real world. The article provides basic theory in non-technical terms and shows applications using the R programming language.

Description: Summary of the issue, with emphasis on common sense and accuracy rather than blind precision. Also describes two F&F contests.

Description: Summary of the July, 2013 newsletter with an executive overview of each article.