Iranian Scientist Claims to Have Built "Time Machine"

This looks like simple probability based predicting. For example, if you're in college you likely have a decent job in the future. In tree form, the next branch would say based on that, you probably have a family and children.

The film the Adjustment Bureau explores this concept on a large scale. If you miss your morning bus, you would never have sat next to your future wife and the tree branches out in a completely different direction. It would take more than a supercomputer to figure out every possible direction your life could take.

Since when Asimov's Foundation was about time travel?