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Using observational data to make inferences about what might happen in the future is not called "futurism." It's called "intelligence."
by staticautomatic 8y ago
Using observational data to make inferences about what might happen in the future is not called "futurism." It's called "intelligence."
- mindcrime 8y agoThat doesn't really matter. The point is, Toffler provided a useful framework for thinking about the world and certain changes going on in the world. Whether you call it "futurism", "intelligence", "black magic" or "quxxikigibikig" is irrelevant. And to your earlier point... no, "futurists" aren't always going to be right about specific details of their predictions. And I doubt many of them would claim that they are, or that that's even the goal. I think the real point of "futurism" is to stimulate thinking about certain plausible events and outcomes, and equip people to gain a small edge in gauging the probability of certain events, or classes of events. In this regard, "futurism" is still valuable, even if the crystal ball is a little fuzzy.
- staticautomatic 8y agoA) It's not irrelevant at all. These people call(ed) themselves futurists. You can't hand-wave away its semantic significance and pretend we don't need to talk about how that word is bullshit. B) I could hardly think of a less compelling defense of futurism than "a fuzzy crystal ball is better than no crystal ball."