Is being able to predict something the same as understanding it?

They don’t follow one another.

I may observe something, like repeated celestial movements, enough to predict the next occurrence, but not understand the way the universe works. An example is astronomers predicting stars appearing but still thinking the solar system revolves around the earth.

Or, I may have deep understanding of something, but the very nature of the thing or system may be random or unpredictable. You may know exactly how the lottery works, but you cannot predict what numbers will be drawn tonight.

In a way it does. Like, I know my husband and I can predict how he’s going to react to something.

@Dutchess_III But your husband seems to surprise you on a regular basis.

Sometimes he does, but for the most part I know what buttons not to push.

It depends on what you mean by understand it, if it’s about empathaize or other.

Sometimes you have to understand something well enough to predict it, but not always. I can build a statistical predictive model and find significant results that explain the majority of variation in an event, but not have a theoretical understanding of how or why things work together, for example.

To take the other direction, understanding something and its relation to predictability depends on how much variability there is in a behavior or outcome. If it is highly variable, I will probably not predict it regardless of how well I understand it.

^^—We have missed you!—-