What is Futures Studies?
Very simply, Futures Studies is the study of the future.
Futures Studies encompasses many labels associated with it:
- futures field
- futures research
- futures analysis
- futurism
- futuristics
- futurology
- futures field
- ‘Futurists’ mainly use the plural of ‘futures’ because the master concept of the futures field is that of the existence of many potential alternative futures, rather than simply a single future.
While ‘futures studies’ is the study of the future, ‘foresight’ is the translation of that future into strategy. Therefore, many professional futurists employ foresight to convert their study work into usable strategy with organizations.
3 Laws of the Future (Joseph Voros)
- The future is not predetermined.
- The future is not predictable.
- Future outcomes can be influenced by our choices in the present.
Types of Futures
- Possible – ‘might happen’, captures anything we can imagine, even that which doesn’t exist yet.
- Plausible – ‘could happen’, captures anything that could happen with our current realities and knowledge.
- Probable – ‘likely to happen’, captures anything likely to happen with current trends.
- Preferable – ‘want to happen’, captures anything we want to happen, whether plausible or not.
Example: “The Apollo Moon Landing, for example, was a preferred future of President Kennedy which began as merely possible but not yet plausible (from the perspective of 1961) because the knowledge did not yet exist at that time to achieve the goal.” (Voros)
Key Figures
Joseph Voros
- A professional futurist with 25+ years’ experience in futures & strategic foresight. Joseph originally reached out to me about my work on Erich Jantsch. Current work includes the future of international relations with NATO, formerly Swinburne Master of Strategic Foresight program.