futurology
(fjuːtjʊəˈrɒlədʒɪ, -tʃər-)
[f. future n. + -ology.]
The forecasting of the future on a systematic basis, esp. by the study of present-day trends in human affairs. Hence futuˈrologist.
| 1946 A. Huxley Let. 29 Mar. (1969) 542 Thank you for..the interesting enclosure on ‘Teaching the Future’. I think that ‘futurology’ might be a very good thing. 1967 Listener 23 Mar. 397/1 Futurology, the systematic study of trends which enable us to forecast the shape of things to come. Ibid. 397/2 Here we are with the automation process which, according to well-known futurologists, will lead to enforced leisure for a large part of the population. 1969 New Scientist 11 Dec. 570/2 Futurology..cannot be turned into a respectable ‘hard’ science merely by getting the economists and the technologists to put some numbers to it. 1970 Financial Times 13 Apr. 7/1 American futurologist Herman Kahn is wrong in seeing the 21st century as belonging to Japan. |
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Add: futuroˈlogical a., (a) of or pertaining to futurology; (b) = futuristic a.
| 1970 New Scientist 24 Dec. 562/1 The conference..sparked off a great deal of the systematic ‘futurological’ thinking that was much [sic] a characteristic of the 'sixties. 1971 Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 18 Apr. 5/7 It's a futurological design and I think you have to use it as a guide, amending it each year as new priorities arise. 1976 Daily Tel. 27 Oct. 6/6 In recent years he has developed a keen interest in national planning and associated with a ‘futurological’ scheme called ‘Argentina in the year 2,000’. 1989 N. & Q. June 256/2 Futurological works such as Back to Methuselah. |