Futurology in Fact and Fiction - Page 3

Futurology, according to Sherryl Vint in her MIT Essential Knowledge volume on Science Fiction, is the study of possible futures. It also contains a predictive element and at some level attempts to extrapolate from the present in which it was written scientific, social, cultural, political, and technological changes that will result in a particular possible future. This extrapolation can be done through either the lens of fiction or non-fiction. While the future has always been a fundamental trope in Science fiction, not all SF sets out to create and explore the components of a potential future; Space Opera , for example, generally takes the tropes of action adventure and arbitrarily sets it an a random, conventionalized "Future". The works listed here are all serious attempts to blue print the Future. ( Note: Futurology should not be confused with Fururism, which was a very specific artistic movement of the early 20th Century.)