EVERY December, we gaze at crystal balls, or something similar. Soothsaying manuals. We ask what is going to happen to us in the future – and forget to ask what is the use of knowing what is going to happen. Margaret Atwoood, the novelist who has written much about frightening futures, warns: ‘If you knew what was going to happen, if you knew everything that was going to happen next—if you knew in advance the consequences o