Fortune telling is the art of sizing up a complete stranger to such an extent that your evaluation of her or him is couched in the most general terms that nonetheless ring true with the stranger to such an extent that she or he will consider you to be in the “know” about her or his inner most secrets. While you might think this is ridiculous and impossible to do, consider the fact that fortune telling for a while was considered to be a profession. To this day there are many who use fortune telling stones, cards, tea leaves, and other implements of their craft for their business.

More often than not, fortune telling has been found to be nothing but a scam. Gifted observers of humankind are able to quickly size up their victim, notice the cut of the pants that are indicative of the ability to purchase tailored or off the rack clothes, the scraping on the heels that may indicate the lack of a car, and the haunted expression of one who carries guilt, a secret, or both. Being able to tie together these easily discernable facts while taking clues from the person’s expression is part and parcel of fortune telling and some have gotten so adept at this art that they have large number of believers flocking to them.

Of course, in the age of the computer fortune telling has been taken to the Internet. There are now ads offering free fortune telling online and free readings online. Fortune telling is now no longer an art that requires the attention of a skilled human being, but instead it has been reduced to entertainment via computer programs that quickly analyze certain variables logged in by the user. Free fortune telling readings may be done via an online Tarot deck, or simply a number of clever questions. Oftentimes these generic free online fortune telling instant readings are little more than a number of open ended questions, some of which require a very specific input. Other times – much akin the newspaper horoscope – the fortunes told are so generic that they could apply to pretty much anyone and still have a small kernel of truth.

What makes this kind of fortune telling so popular that it is even preserved in the occasions painting simply speaks of human nature that is never contented with the here and now but consistently looks for bigger, better, and more information about tomorrow – whether the smoke and mirrors of the fortune teller’s back room are used, or the anonymity of the Internet does not seem to matter.