These are the 7 weirdest, wackiest and scariest predictions for 2018

You can't predict the future.

Anyone who's read a Nate Silver book will be reaching for their 'angry email' keyboards right now to delineate predictions from forecasts for me, but we're speaking generally.

Trends can inform likely outcomes, you can try to estimate, with a reasonable degree of accuracy, a likely outcome given certain events.

However, you cannot predict future complex events with much certainty at all. There are usually too many variables.

So, ignoring all statistical wisdom, we've had a go at it using the wisdom of the mob and the

Here's a few common predictions around the web for the likely events in the next 12 months:

1. A changing of the guard

The Bulgarian mystic Baba Vanga, who died at the age of 85 in 1996, left predictions up to the 51st Century. Conspiracy theorists have since flocked to her, calling her a prophet, despite the imprecise language she uses and the erroneous predictions she made.

People have claimed she predicted 9/11 when she said...

Horror, horror! The American brethren will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush, and innocent blood will be gushing.

...which is sufficiently horrific and lacking in any precise detail.

For 2018 she supposedly predicted that China will become the new world superpower ahead of the United States, and...

2. A new form of energy will be discovered on Venus

There are no current space missions to Venus, so this seems unlikely.

However, if we're not looking for it, this could be terrifying.

3. Vladimir Putin will be re-elected

As Al-Jazeera points out, this is merely a formality as the main opposition leader, Alexei Navalny is banned from standing under corruption charges.

He says these are politically motivated.

By the time 2024 rolls round (and his supposedly final term finishes) he will have been the dominant political figure in Russia for nearly 25 years.

4. The Democrats will win the most seats in the House of Representatives

Trump's approval rating and the loss of Roy Moore in Alabama, among other bellweathers suggest the democrats are coming back.

CNN's analysts also predict a Democrat victory, with the overwhelming majority of contributors going blue.

In politics, a week is a long time - anything could happen between now and then.

5. The media will cover Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding in way too much detail

As an Al-Jazeera columnist recently wrote:

A mixed-race, divorced American hooks up with the younger son who has spoken openly of his struggles with grief and anxiety.

Is it possible to be indifferent towards the British royal family while also believing that this particular relationship is a good thing?

I confess, dear reader, that is where I find myself.

Expect the British press to be all over it.

6. Germany will retain the Fifa World Cup and England won't win it

The early predictions for the 2018 World Cup are coming in andBleacher Report's Sam Tighe ranks Germany as the team to beat.

As do most bookies. As do the Fifa World Rankings.

In the same rankings, England - despite promising youth teams - are 15th.

It doesn't bode well for the Three Lions.

7. The AI bubble will burst

Gordon Ritter, the founder and general partner of an enterprise cloud venture firm, told Inc.:

Many companies which raised large sums based solely on buzzword-laden pitch decks will fail.

When the dust settles, the companies using machine learning to solve focused problems using proprietary data sets will remain.

We believe the most exciting of this crop will be coaching cloud companies.

More: Eight things that will happen in 2018, according to the man who predicted Brexit and Donald Trump