Futurism

Not to be confused with Futurism.com

Futurism—also known as Future Studies, Futurology and Foresight Studies—is the systematic exploration and evaluation of potential future scenarios.

Evaluation criteria for scenarios include:

• How credible is the scenario?
• How attractive is the scenario (after any initial "future shock" has been set aside)?
• What steps can be taken to prepare for the scenario?
• What steps can be taken to increase (or decrease) the likelihood of that scenario?

Important future scenarios

Future scenarios (or types of scenario) that deserve highlighting include varieties of each of the following:

• The Singularity
• Existential risk
• Existential opportunities
• Technofeudalism
• Technoscepticism
• Technocapitalism
• Technoconservatism
• Technolibertarianism
• Technoprogressivism
• Cosmists vs. Terrans
• Radical futurism - transhumanist scenarios within futurism

Methods of futurism

Formal methods applied by futurists include:

• Environmental scanning
• Trend analysis
• Cyclical pattern analysis
• Cross impact analysis
• Narrative development
• Scenario development
• Backcasting
• Delphi method
• Prediction markets
• State of the Future Index
• Superforecasting
• Zoom out, zoom in

Significant futurist organizations

• The World Future Society
• Association of Professional Futurists
• The Millennium Project
• Manchester Futurists
• Institute for the Future
• London Futurists
• Long Now Foundation
• Futurism.com (a curated newsfeed)

• List of meetup organisations that include "Futurist" (or similar) as a tag

See also

• Career options for aspiring futurists
• Laws of Futurism lists statements sometimes described as 'laws', which can provide insight about futurism
• Books lists books that provide helpful material about futurist methods
• Reviews of predictions reviews historical sets of serious predictions about the future
• Futurists ranked by influence a list maintained by Ross Dawson

External links

• Futures studies on Wikipedia