Data to Predicted Events and Decisions

Can the future be predicted by tracking Twitter?  A government project that addresses this.  In a recent post I mentioned work that I have been tracking track and utilizing to help analysts think about future events. But not really predicting the future, just understanding multiple scenarios and how the people who would influence these events are thinking.   But could this be done more quantitatively, like in the narrow  domain of a product demand forecast?   I don't think so, not without doing good qualitative contextual ground work first.  Much more here on this topic, and the use of Recorded Future.