Futureology

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The systematic analysis and prediction of future social, technological, economic, and cultural trends based on present data and patterns
2. A field of inquiry concerned with forecasting what will happen in society, technology, and human affairs by examining current trajectories and evidence
3. The practice of studying probable future conditions and developments to anticipate coming changes in civilization, industry, and human experience

Etymology: Futurology is a coinage of the 1940s, not an ancient discipline. The German-born American-trained scientist Ossip K. Flechtheim, a political scientist, introduced "Futurologie" in 1943 and, after the war, popularised the English form "futurology" in the late 1940s and 1950s, when he helped establish the study of possible future societies as a field. The word is built from the Latin "futurus", meaning "about to be", combined with the Greek-derived suffix "-logy", meaning "the study of", so it literally means "the study of the future." The term was soon taken up in the wider public imagination, and its connotations shifted. In the 1960s and 1970s it was widely used for forecasting in economics, technology and planning, and it became a byword for confident prediction. Its critics, however, often used it dismissively, which is why the word now carries a faintly mocking note, suggesting predictions that were confidently made but rarely borne out.

Synonyms: futurology, futurism, forecasting, prognostication