Beginning with the formative years of futurism, Strathern shows how it
evolved into a respectable discipline and explores how it later branched
out to adapt to the changing needs and greed of civilization. In trying to
predict how we would live, work and even love, some of these futurists were
spectacularly right, some were embarrassingly and hilariously wrong, and
some really gave the future a run for its money.

Many of their predictions were of a practical, technical and scientific
nature - Leonardo's flying machines, Darwin's evolutionary theory,
Mendeleyev's periodic table. Some were political - from Marx's political
futurism and Orwell's Big Brother to von Neumann's game theory that nearly
led to a Third World War. All of them however, had something interesting
and poignant - if not controversial or unusual to say about what was and is
to come.

Along the way, prediction has become an integral part of business and
politics - Shell used scenario planning against oil shocks in the 1970s,
cool-hunters prowled the streets in the 1990s and today Nokia has a
`foresight' department. Even the government of Lichtenstein has a shiny new
futures department. Ultimately, we must ask whether we can `make' the
future, or does the future

Synopsis
Predicting the future is a notoriously precarious, profitable and even dangerous business. This book takes a look at the most interesting, important and influential futurists over the years; from Delphi's virgin visionaries, to pop futurists, science fiction writers, trend gurus and evolutionary experts. It provides a chronological history of the future, looking at the predictions that have shaped our world - Leonardo's flying machines; Darwin's evolutionary theory; Mendeleyev's periodic table; Marx's political futurism; Orwell's Big Brother; von Neumann's game theory that nearly led to World War Three; Buckminster Fuller and Corbusier's visions of social change through architecture. Prediction has become an integral part of business - Shell used scenario planning against oil shocks in the seventies, Nokia has a 'foresight' department, even the government of Lichtenstein has a shiny new futures department. But how do these people think, where do they get their ideas and what influence do they really have over our minds, businesses and politics?

As well as the history of this influential, mysterious discipline, this book also gives an insider's view of the workings of future prediction today. Ultimately, we must ask whether we can 'make' the future, or does the future make us?

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• Science & Nature > Popular Science
• Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Cultural Studies > History of Ideas

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