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Future Studies

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See Also

Progress and Its Sustainability by John McCarthy. Discusses the real resource limitations of the world.

The Singularity. Technological evolution has steadily speeded up the last few thousand years, and it appears likely to continue. Will this lead to a major change in human history?

AnthroFuturism essay on Seeker1's Cyberanthropology Page. Towards an anthropology of futurism.

Notes on global evolution for fellow Thinkers by Alexander Chislenko. Mixed ideas about science fiction, economics, religion, science and art.

Plausible Futures. A future oriented resource center, intended to inform decisionmakers of possible futures.

Resources for futures research

200 Futures for 2020 by Ian Pearson & Peter Cochrane. An overview of some technologies that will likely be developed in the next 25 years.

Future History page by David Carey.

The Seven Ages of Computer Connectivity by John F. Barber (Kairos 2.1). The consequences and interplay of the information revolution.

Tomorrow's World: The Odd Way We Design Our Destiny by David Brin.

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is one of the most popular methods of qualitative futurism. It is based on identifying the driving factors of a situation, and then building several plausible scenarios based on different outcomes. These scenarios are not predictions, but rather descriptions of possible outcomes and interactions.

Air Forces 2025. A military study looking at near-future scenarios and how they will affect the US Air Force. Contains plenty of well researched and useful material for civil applications too.

The Art of the Long View User's Guide. A chapter by chapter summary of The Art of the Long View by Peter Schwartz. Explains the principles underlying the scenario methodology.

Global Business Network, an organization specializing in scenario thinking and collaborative learning about the future. See especially the sections about Scenario Planning and the Book Club.

Creating the future: Scenarios for the Digital Economy by IDEA. Three scenarios of the future.

The New Society by Samu Mielonen. A scenario for an 'utopian future'; the site mentions an alternative 'dystopian future' - if this is the utopia, then the dystopia is very, very bad...

Other Sites

Books

Peter Schwartz, The Art of the Long View : Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World, Doubleday; ISBN: 0385267320 1996

See also

Relevant newsgroups: comp.society.futures, alt.society.futures