But let’s really look at the statement “The future will be like the past because in the past the future was like the past.”
If by “like the past,” do we mean obey the same physical laws?
If we do, then I think what we’re trying to estimate is the chance, over a specified time frame, that the physical laws will change.
The problem then reduces to the problem of drawing red and blue marbles out of a hat. We can look at all the available time frames that we have “drawn” up to this point and get a confidence estimate on how likely it is that the physical laws will change over the next “draw” of the time frame
To point 4 and inflation, the trick is to not invest in commodity futures (where the deflationary pressures of improved production technology cancel some of the inflationary pressures of currency devaluation) but rather assets. You can invest in the S&P 500 and achieve ~11% nominal returns. Now whether asset prices are relevant to “inflation” is dependent upon whether you are trying to answer the question of “how many apples could I buy for a dollar in 1960 versus today?” or the question “how many apples could I buy for a dollar today if they were produced with the same inputs and technological process as they were in 1960?”