Time-Series and Forecasting – Past and Present

Time-Series have been studied since antiquity, and since then, time-series analysis and forecasting have come a long way. A variety of disciplines contributed to the development of techniques applied to time-series, including mathematics, astronomy, demographics, and statistics. Many innovations came initially from mathematics, later statistics, and finally machine learning. Many innovations in applied statistics had their origins in demography (used in public administration), economics, or other fields.

In this section, I'll sketch the development path from simpler methods leading up to the machine learning methods available today. I'll try to chart the development of concepts relevant to time-series from the time of the Industrial Revolution to modernity. We'll deal with the more technical and up-to-date side of things in Chapter 4, Introduction to Machine Learning with Time-Series.

There's still much...