World Future Society
Encyclopedia
The World Future Society is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization in Bethesda
, Maryland, US
, founded in 1966.
The Society investigates how social
, economic and technological
developments are shaping the future
. On the Society's Web site, it says that it seeks to help individuals, organizations, and communities observe, understand and respond to social change
appropriately and investigates the benign effects of applying anticipatory thinking
to society.
Through its magazine The Futurist, media, meetings, and dialogue among its members, it endeavors to raise awareness of change and encourage development of creative solutions. The society takes no official position on what the future may or should be like. Instead it seeks to provide a neutral forum for exploring possible, probable, and preferable futures.
Chapters of the World Future Society are active in cities around the world.
Membership is open to anyone who wishes to join and can afford it. The society claims that its membership includes sociologists, scientists, corporate planners, educators, students and retirees.http://www.wfs.org/Nov-Dec%20Files/The_Search_for_Foresight.pdf
resources about futurism and content from the society's various publications.
In 2009, The Futurist published articles by forecaster and Smart Money
columnist Jamais Cascio
, NASA chief research scientist Dennis Bushnell, Financial Times
economist Martin Wolf
, workplace expert John Challenger and Wall Street Journal "Gen X" columnist Alexandra Levit. The magazine published exclusive interviews with former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
, serving U.S. congressman Dennis Kucinich
, Harvard
evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser
, as well as inventor (and World Future 2010 featured speaker) Ray Kurzweil.
The Futurist featured coverage on:
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
, Maryland, US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, founded in 1966.
The Society investigates how social
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, economic and technological
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
developments are shaping the future
Future
The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...
. On the Society's Web site, it says that it seeks to help individuals, organizations, and communities observe, understand and respond to social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
appropriately and investigates the benign effects of applying anticipatory thinking
Systems thinking
Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish...
to society.
Through its magazine The Futurist, media, meetings, and dialogue among its members, it endeavors to raise awareness of change and encourage development of creative solutions. The society takes no official position on what the future may or should be like. Instead it seeks to provide a neutral forum for exploring possible, probable, and preferable futures.
Members
The World Future Society has members in more than 80 countries. Individuals and groups from all nations are eligible to join this society and actively engage in its programs and events. The Society holds an annual conference during July, which usually features keynote speakers and one-or two-day courses dealing with the future.Chapters of the World Future Society are active in cities around the world.
Membership is open to anyone who wishes to join and can afford it. The society claims that its membership includes sociologists, scientists, corporate planners, educators, students and retirees.http://www.wfs.org/Nov-Dec%20Files/The_Search_for_Foresight.pdf
Web site
The society’s web site features digital libraryDigital library
A digital library is a library in which collections are stored in digital formats and accessible by computers. The digital content may be stored locally, or accessed remotely via computer networks...
resources about futurism and content from the society's various publications.
Publications
The World Future Society publishes numerous books, including Futuring: The Exploration of the Future (Oct. 2005), written by society founder Edward Cornish, as well as several print and electronic journals.The Futurist
- The Futurist, a full-color bimonthly magazine that reports on a technological, societal, and public policy trends. Among the thinkers and experts who have contributed to The Futurist in the past year are: MITMassachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
architecture scholar William G. Mitchell: Washington Post writer Joel GarreauJoel GarreauJoel Garreau is an American journalist, scholar and author of Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies – And What It Means to Be Human, Edge City: Life on the New Frontier and The Nine Nations of North America.In 2010, Garreau became the Lincoln Professor of Law,...
; inventor Ray Kurzweil; Foresight president J. Storrs Hall; Daniel Barnett of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public HealthThe Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is part of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...
on flu pandemic; Former Harper'sHarper's BazaarHarper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
editor Lewis LaphamLewis LaphamLewis Henry Lapham was an American entrepreneur who made a fortune consolidating smaller business in the leather industry. He was also one of the founders of Texaco Oil Company....
; Center for Strategic International Studies senior fellow Edward N. Luttwak; Pulitzer PrizePulitzer PrizeThe Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
nominee James MartinJames Martin (author)James Martin is a British Information Technology consultant and author, who was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for his book, The Wired Society: A Challenge for Tomorrow .- Biography :...
; U.S. Comptroller General David M. WalkerDavid M. Walker (U.S. Comptroller General)David M. Walker served as United States Comptroller General from 1998 to 2008, and is now the Founder and CEO of the Comeback America Initiative.- Career as Comptroller General :...
; and former CIACentral Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
director Robert James Woolsey, Jr., among many others.
In 2009, The Futurist published articles by forecaster and Smart Money
Smart Money
Smart Money is a 1931 film starring Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney, the only time Robinson and Cagney made a movie together, despite being the two leading gangster actors at Warner Brothers studios all through the 1930s...
columnist Jamais Cascio
Jamais Cascio
Jamais Cascio is a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and ethical futurist specializing in design strategies and possible outcomes for future scenarios...
, NASA chief research scientist Dennis Bushnell, Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
economist Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf
Martin Wolf, CBE is a British journalist, widely considered to be one of the world's most influential writers on economics. He is associate editor and chief economics commentator at the Financial Times.-Early life:...
, workplace expert John Challenger and Wall Street Journal "Gen X" columnist Alexandra Levit. The magazine published exclusive interviews with former U.S. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is a U.S. Republican Party politician who served as the House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995 and as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999....
, serving U.S. congressman Dennis Kucinich
Dennis Kucinich
Dennis John Kucinich is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1997. He was furthermore a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections....
, Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
evolutionary biologist Marc Hauser
Marc Hauser
Marc D. Hauser is an American evolutionary biologist and a researcher in primate behavior and animal cognition who taught in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. In August 2010, a committee of Harvard faculty found Hauser solely responsible for eight counts of unspecified scientific...
, as well as inventor (and World Future 2010 featured speaker) Ray Kurzweil.
The Futurist featured coverage on:
- Powering an energy-hungry civilization with uraniumUraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
, sunlight, wind, the gulf stream, garbage, ammonia, algae, other sources. - The potential impact of artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and nanotechnologyNanotechnologyNanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
on invention and manufacturing, - Changing the weather to combat climate changeClimate changeClimate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average...
, - How to create your own artificial island nation,
- The job market of the 21st century,
- The future of national securityNational securityNational security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
in the age of cyber warfare, by former White HouseWhite HouseThe White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
advisor Marvin Cetron, - The influence of neuroscienceNeuroscienceNeuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
on traditional ideas of morality.
Further journals
- World Future Review published bimonthly by the World Future Society as a peer-reviewed academic journal about the practice of foresight. The journal is edited by World Future Society President http://www.wfs.org/mackbio.htm Timothy C. Mack.
- Futurist Update, a monthly electronic newsletter with topical items of interest to the futures community;
- Outlook, an annual report offering members selected forecasts that can help them anticipate events of the future;
- Learning Tomorrow, a quarterly electronic newsletter with articles of on a wide range of education or training subjects written by WFS members and education professionals around the world.
- Future Times, a quarterly Web journal about the World Future Society and its activities plus a column on new technologies written by WFS President Timothy C. Mack.
External links
- World Future Society (WFS) official website
- http://www.wfs.org/Nov-Dec%20Files/The_Search_for_Foresight.pdf The Search for Foresight, an autobiographical history of the World Future Society by Edward Cornish.
- http://www.wfs.org/mackbio.htm The bio of Timothy C. Mack, taken from the World Future Society's Web site.
- http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto013020071441302758 A Financial Times article about futurism citing Edward Cornish