The university lecturer teaching a course on 'The Simpsons' explains why the show appears to predict the future | Business Insider

Photo: Edith Hancock

When Donald Trump was elected president earlier this month, people all over the world became fascinated with the fact that "The Simpsons" predicted it 16 years before it happened." notes Edith Hancock, Lifestyle Fellow for Business Insider UK. 

A still from a short animation released after Donald Trump announced he would be running for president.
Photo: 20th Century Fox

Now, the University of Glasgow's Philosophy Department has gained worldwide notoriety after one of its lecturers announced he's teaching a class on the show next year.

The one-day class called "D'oh! The Simpsons Introduce Philosophy," will take place in January 2017, exploring a range of philosophical topics from ethics to political theory, using the animated TV show as a guide. 

Dr John Donaldson, a graduate tutor at the University, told Business Insider why the show is a perfect tool for teaching philosophy, and how it has managed to predict the future so often throughout its 27-year history. 

"It's a show about life," Donaldson told Business Insider. "It deals with situations close to our own hearts and touches on themes we see in our day-to-day lives, so it's unsurprising that some of the things they touch on can become a reality." 

As well as Trump's presidency, "The Simpsons" has accurately predicted the future in lots of different ways — from the discovery of the Higgs Boson to faulty voting machines in the 2008 US election. The inadvertent predictions have happened so often, they've been labelled as "eerie," and "spooky," by several news outlets, and more predictions continue to come out of the woodwork.

Despite the strange knack the writers have for clairvoyance, Donaldson said these predictions are purely coincidence. 
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Source: Business Insider