"Futurology" as a term was coined in the twentieth century. What counts under that term has changed over time, as such this list is a jumble, and is intended to be suggestive, not definitive. Notable futurologists include:
Name | Birth | Death | Field or notable accomplishment |
---|---|---|---|
Abishur Prakash | 1991 | living | geopolitical futurist, author |
Adrian Berry | 1937 | 2016 | writer, journalist |
Alan Marshall | 1969 | living | academic, environmentalist, social scientist, writer |
Aldous Huxley | 1894 | 1963 | writer of Brave New World, psychedelic prophet |
Alvin & Heidi Toffler | 1928/1929 | 2016/2019 | wrote Future Shock, and sequels, technological singularity |
Anders Sandberg | 1972 | living | human enhancement |
Andrey Korotayev | 1961 | living | mathematical modeling of global future[1] |
Archibald Low | 1888 | 1956 | space |
Arthur C. Clarke | 1917 | 2008 | writer |
Ash Koosha | 1985 | living | Futurist Composer and Producer [2] |
Ashis Nandy | 1937 | living | writer on colonialism |
Ben Goertzel | 1966 | living | artificial general intelligence researcher, OpenCog |
Bertrand de Jouvenel | 1903 | 1987 | economist |
Bill Joy | 1954 | living | UNIX, technology dangers |
Bruce Sterling | 1954 | living | living design, information technology |
Buckminster Fuller | 1895 | 1983 | architect, cosmologist, whole-systems thinker, designer/inventor |
Carl Sagan | 1934 | 1996 | astronomer |
Clement Bezold | 1948 | living | healthcare |
Dandridge M. Cole | 1921 | 1965 | space colonization |
Daniel Bell | 1919 | 2011 | "Post-Industrial Society" |
Daniel Burrus | 1947 | living | futurist, business advisor, author |
Darla Jane Gilroy | living | futurist, trendspotting | |
David Passig | 1957 | living | anticipatory anthropology |
Deane Hutton | 1941 | living | communicator |
Dennis Gabor | 1900 | 1979 | holography |
Dirk HR Spennemann | living | space heritage | |
Donald Prell | 1924 | 2020 | venture capital, strategic foresight, technological singularity |
Donella Meadows | 1941 | 2001 | systems thinking, leverage points, sustainability |
Douglas Engelbart | 1925 | 2013 | hypertext, mouse, interactive computing |
Douglas Rushkoff | 1961 | living | [3][4][5] media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian, early cyberpunk culture, open source |
Edward Bellamy | 1850 | 1898 | wrote Looking Backward: 2000–1887, a utopia about the future year 2000, economic reorganization |
Eliezer Yudkowsky | 1979 | living | friendly artificial intelligence |
Erich Jantsch | 1929 | 1980 | book The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution |
Faith Popcorn | 1948 | living | popcorn report |
FM-2030 | 1930 | 2000 | transhumanist, essayist |
Fred Polak | 1907 | 1985 | social studies, wrote The Image of the Future |
Freeman Dyson | 1923 | 2020 | nuclear engineering, disarmament advocate, ideas of Dyson sphere, nuclear space-flight |
Gaston Berger | 1896 | 1960 | cognitive science |
Gene Roddenberry | 1921 | 1991 | creator of the Star Trek franchise. |
Genevieve Bell | 1968 | living | cultural anthropologist and technologist |
George Dvorsky | 1970 | living | transhumanist |
George Friedman | 1949 | living | geopolitics |
George Gilder | 1939 | living | society |
George Orwell | 1903 | 1950 | writer (wrote 1984) |
Gerald Celente | 1946 | living | trend forecaster |
Gerard K. O'Neill | 1927 | 1992 | envisioned space colonization |
Gianroberto Casaleggio | 1954 | 2016 | politics, internet |
Grace Hopper | 1906 | 1992 | women in computing, COBOL |
H. G. Wells | 1866 | 1946 | writer, historian, among the first to think of himself as a futurist |
Hans Moravec | 1948 | living | robotics, AI |
Harlan Cleveland | 1918 | 2008 | diplomacy |
Hazel Henderson | 1933 | 2022 | cooperative economics |
Herman Kahn | 1922 | 1983 | military strategist, econo-technical predictions |
Hugo de Garis | 1947 | living | AI |
Hugo Gernsback | 1884 | 1967 | invented the term "science fiction", wrote the novel Ralph 124C 41+, started science fiction magazines. After him the Hugo Awards are named. |
Isaac Arthur | 1980 | living | Long term future of the space industry and colonization, physicist, YouTube personality |
Isaac Asimov | 1920 | 1992 | writer of science and science fiction, created the Three Laws of Robotics. |
Jacque Fresco | 1916 | 2017 | architect, resource economics, model maker, envisioner of cornucopian world |
James Hughes | 1961 | living | ethics |
James Lovelock | 1919 | 2022 | environmentalist, Gaia hypothesis, Global warming theorist |
Jean Fourastié | 1907 | 1990 | economist |
John McHale | 1922 | 1978 | artist, sociologist |
Jeremy Rifkin | 1945 | living | economist, science and tech. critic of various sorts, writer |
Jerry Fishenden | living | Microsoft future | |
Jim Dator | living | politics | |
Joanne Pransky | 1959 | 2023 | robotics |
Joël de Rosnay | 1937 | living | molecular biology |
John Naisbitt | 1929 | 2021 | wrote Megatrends |
José Luis Cordeiro | 1962 | living | engineer, economist, and author of La Muerte de la Muerte |
Jules Verne | 1828 | 1905 | previsioned aviation, spaceflight, submarine travel |
Karel Čapek | 1890 | 1938 | fiction writer who invented the word robot |
Karl Marx | 1818 | 1883 | predicted societal and economic development on the basis of dialectical materialism[6] |
Kevin Kelly | 1952 | living | founding executive editor of Wired magazine and author of multiple futurology books |
Kevin Warwick | 1954 | living | robotics |
Kim Stanley Robinson | 1952 | living | novelist known for Mars Trilogy, 2312 (novel), Aurora (novel), and the forthcoming 'New York, 2140' |
Krafft Arnold Ehricke | 1917 | 1984 | space colonization |
Leonardo da Vinci | 1452 | 1519 | engineer, inventor, scientist |
Lidewij Edelkoort | 1950 | living | fashion |
M. G. Gordon | 1915 | 1969 | social studies |
Magda Cordell McHale | 1921 | 2008 | painter, educator |
Mahdi Elmandjra | 1933 | 2014 | economist, sociologist |
Mark Pesce | 1962 | living | inventor, writer, engineer |
Mark Satin | 1946 | living | political theory |
Mark Stevenson | 1971 | living | author, entrepreneur, geo-technology |
Marshall Brain | 1961 | living | robotics, transhumanism |
Marshall McLuhan | 1911 | 1980 | communications |
Martin Ford | 1963 | living | artificial intelligence, robotics, author of New York Times bestseller Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future |
Matthew Simmons | 1943 | 2010 | peak oil, oil reserves |
Max More | 1964 | living | Extropy Institute |
Meredith Thring | 1915 | 2006 | inventor |
Michael Crichton | 1942 | 2008 | writer; implications of progress in science |
Michael Rogers | living | New York Times futurist; MSNBC commentator | |
Michel Saloff Coste | 1955 | living | art, Club of Budapest |
Michio Kaku | 1947 | living | string field theory, expositor |
Mitchell Joachim | 1972 | living | ecological design
Michel de Nostredame |
Natasha Vita-More | 1950 | living | Humanity+ |
Neal Stephenson | 1959 | living | novelist known for Snow Crash, Anathem, and Seveneves |
Nicholas Negroponte | 1943 | living | OLPC, new technological media |
Nick Bostrom | 1973 | living | [7][8][9][10][11][12][13]philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, the reversal test, and consequentialism |
Nicolas De Santis | 1966 | living | Corporate Visioning, author, tech entrepreneur, founder Opodo |
Nikola Tesla | 1856 | 1943 | energy, inventor |
Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov | 1829 | 1903 | renewable energy, life extension/immortality, tranhumanism, space colonization |
Orrin H. Pilkey | 1934 | living | critic of environmentalists [citation needed], coastline erosion |
Ossip K. Flechtheim | 1909 | 1998 | political scientist |
Patrick Dixon | 1957 | living | business |
Peter C. Bishop | 1944 | living | educator - strategic foresight |
Peter Diamandis | 1961 | living | Singularity University |
Peter Newman | 1945 | living | sustainability, transport systems, cars and cities |
Peter Schwartz | 1946 | living | China, climate change, business, technology |
Phil Salin | 1949 | 1991 | cyberspace and the Internet |
Philip K. Dick | 1928 | 1982 | writer who produced the novels behind Blade Runner and Minority Report |
Ray Kurzweil | 1948 | living | AI, transhumanism, technological singularity, life extension |
Raymond Spencer Rodgers | 1935 | 2007 | telesphere, food-chain |
Renzo Provinciali | 1895 | 1981 | anarchist |
Richard Feynman | 1918 | 1988 | physicist, originator of concept of nanotechnology |
Richard Moran | 1950 | living | social scientist |
Richard Neville | 1941 | 2016 | author, reporter |
Richard Slaughter | 1940 | living | sociologist |
Robert A. Heinlein | 1907 | 1988 | novelist |
Robert Anton Wilson | 1932 | 2007 | psychonaut, novelist, essayist |
Robert Jastrow | 1925 | 2008 | NASA scientist, author, spaceflight |
Robert Jungk | 1913 | 1994 | journalist |
Robert Theobald | 1929 | 1999 | economics |
Robin Hanson | 1959 | living | prediction markets, singularity, transhumanism |
Roger Bacon | 1220 | 1292 | Franciscan Friar, Natural Philosopher |
Ross Dawson | 1962 | living | futurist, speaker, author |
Scott Smith | 1967 | living | "flatpack futures" |
Sohail Inayatullah | 1958 | living | political scientist |
Stanisław Lem | 1921 | 2006 | novelist |
Stephen Hawking | 1942 | 2018 | astrophysics, cosmology [14][15] |
Stewart Brand | 1938 | living | cognitive science, environmental philosophy, whole systems |
Sydney Jay Mead | 1933 | 2019 | visual futurist |
Terence McKenna | 1946 | 2000 | philosopher, psychonaut, speaker, ethnobotanist |
Ted Nelson | 1937 | living | writer, philosopher, creator of hypertext concept and Xanadu project |
Theodore Modis | 1943 | living | business, physics |
Thomas Frey | 1954 | living | futurist speaker, technology, future jobs, future of work, future crimes, future of transportation, unanswerable question |
Tim Cannon | 1979 | living | technology, transhumanist |
Timothy Leary | 1920 | 1996 | psychologist, psychedelics enthusiast, transhumanist, space migration, life extension |
Vannevar Bush | 1890 | 1974 | analog computing, envisioned Memex, similar to what the internet is now |
W. Warren Wagar | 1932 | 2004 | historian |
Walt Disney | 1901 | 1966 | filmmaker, businessman,[16] created "Tomorrowland" and a concept Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (referred to by acronym EPCOT) |
Walter Greiling | 1900 | 1986 | chemist, sociologist |
Warren Ellis | 1968 | living | writer |
Wendell Bell | 1924 | 2019 | sociology |
William Gibson | 1948 | living | novelist (cyberpunk) |
William Gilpin | 1813 | 1894 | politician |
Willis Harman | 1918 | 1997 | sociocultural evolution |
Ziauddin Sardar | 1951 | living | Muslim thought |
Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List of futurologists.
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