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Futurology in the Year 2030

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As futurologists, we predict what will happen in the world at large. But we tend to have less to say about where our own discipline is headed. In this article we turn the telescope a full 180 and see what futurology will look like in the year 2030.

Futurology will go big

Modern day futurologists are restricted to predictions of time and space. But futurologists of 2030 will look into the multiverse and make orthogonal forecasts to intersect multiple competing realities.

What will a multidimensional forecast look like? At this point in time, we can’t possibly know - that’s what makes it so exciting! But rest assured, it will involve world domination by AI, and sooner or later, you will need to be ready.

Futurology will go small

Today’s futurologists gaze years, if not decades into the future. Highly specialised futurologists in the year 2030 will make micro-predictions, forecasting the world as it will be in a few hours. Due to exponential increases in futurology’s accuracy, they will almost always be right.

“Long-distance futurologists”, equivalent to today’s “futurologists”, will be required to assess the impact on the betting industry, and on the eventual world domination by AI.

Futurology will go backwards

Led by the success of Dan Brown, a new branch of futurology will apply futurologist techniques to the past, looking backwards to imagine what the world might have been like 5, 10, or even 20 years in the past.

Unlike historians, these “pastologists” will not be limited by primary sources, and will apply trend analysis and regression extrapolation to provide an accurate picture of what might have been. World domination by AI will feature prominently, despite not having happened.

Heavy metal futurologists

In 2031, futurologists will finally stop predicting world domination by AI. This will follow the development in 2030 of AIVA - Artificially Intelligent Visionary Android - who will make human futurologists obsolete.

Summary and conclusion

Futurology clearly has a bright future, at least up to the point of world domination by AI. What will you do to make sure you’re there to predict its continued success?