How do you define a Futurist?

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From time to time we respond to questions about the future sent in via email by readers. We don’t have a lot of time for this, but when a question seems especially interesting we offer our thoughts.

J. Carter [Dovly@prodigy.net] sent this question:

How do you Define a Futurist?

I am an Eastern College graduate student, and I had to critique a book entitled The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, by Tom Sine. In his book he is addressed as a futurist? I wasn’t sure how to define futurist, so I searched the Internet, and your web site was the first one that gave me a definition. So, correct me if I am incorrect. A futurist is some who studies and researches, probabilities for the future empirically or scientifically.

Response by Glen Hiemstra, 2001

Justine,

That is as good a definition as any. I think of Futurists (there are 1200 professional members of the World Future Society) as focusing in any of three areas.

  1. Forecasting the future, using quantitative and qualitative means,
  2. Imagining the future, using primarily intuition and writing skills, and
  3. Creating the future, using techniques of planning and consulting.

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