Futures studies. Moore's law is an example of futures studies; it is a statistical collection of past and present trends with the goal of accurately extrapolating future trends. Futures studies (also called futurology and futurism) is the study of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures and the worldviews and myths that underlie them.
There is a debate as to whether this discipline is an art or science. In general, it can be considered as a branch of the social sciences and parallel to the field of history. In the same way that history studies the past, futures studies considers the future. Futures studies (colloquially called "futures" by many of the field's practitioners) seeks to understand what is likely to continue and what could plausibly change. Overview[edit] Futures studies is an interdisciplinary field, studying yesterday's and today's changes, and aggregating and analyzing both lay and professional strategies and opinions with respect to tomorrow.
Methodologies[edit] Nanotechnology - Foresight Institute. Association of Professional Futurists - What Is A Futurist? A professional futurist is a person who studies the future in order to help people understand, anticipate, prepare for and gain advantage from coming changes. It is not the goal of a futurist to predict what will happen in the future. The futurist uses foresight to describe what could happen in the future and, in some cases, what should happen in the future. Most people use some sort of foresight all the time - something as simple as listening to the weather forecast to prepare for the next day. A professional futurist uses formal methods to develop descriptions of possible futures. One of the founding principles of the field of futures studies is the idea of personal and organizational choice. By considering systems and human agency, futurists help identify choices that affect the future, for ourselves and future generations.
What do futurists do? Framing Where do you begin? A futurist usually does not set out to describe “The Future.” Scanning There are two types of scanning. Visioning. About the Millennium Project. Purpose: Improve humanity's prospects for building a better future. Mission: Improve thinking about the future and make that thinking available through a variety of media for feedback to accumulate wisdom about the future for better decisions today.
Vision: A global foresight network of Nodes, information, and software, building a global collective intelligence system recognized for its ability to improve prospects for humanity. A think tank on behalf of humanity, not on behalf of a government, or an issue, or an ideology, but on behalf of building a better future for all of us. Key Outputs:Global Futures Intelligence SystemAnnual State of the Future reportsFutures Research Methodology 3.0 Special global futures research The Millennium Project was founded in 1996 after a three-year feasibility study with the United Nations University, Smithsonian Institution, Futures Group International, and the American Council for the UNU. The Millennium Project's primary products include: Alan F. Chaîne de WorldFutureSociety. World Future Society | Tomorrow is built today.