The world of Futures is a confused nexus of terms and mixed array of occupational titles. I am steeped in this work and sometimes I get confused. Heaven help the newbie or casually interested! Futurists, forecasters, change agents and everyone else who ply their trade about the future really have some lexicon overload to deal with. Very few industries have the level of ambiguous entendres, historical stigmas and mischaracterizations of what each of these futures people do, and how certain types do it differently? Depending on who you talk to — futures, foresight or forecasting can elicit another type of F word. For a discipline that is young comparatively speaking and combats a lot of resistance from the establsihed set, we do make it tough for ourselves. The definitions and distinctions beg some new sunlight and fresh air being cast on them.
In this article we cover off :
- the 40 types of people in the Futures Universe
- Futures Skills Profiles
- The Six Horsemen of the Future-Lypse
- Top 30 Popularity of Future-based Professions (on LinkedIn)
- Top 30 Popularity of Future disciplines (on Google Search
The 40 Future/Foresight Disciplines/Titles:
- Futures Thinking/.Thinkers
- Futurism
- Futurology/Futurologist
- Futures Studies
- Futurists
- Futuring
- Futuristics
- Futuriziatio/Futurize
- Futureproofing/Futureproofer
- Strategic Foresight
- Applied Foresight
- Strategic Planning/Planner
- Policy Planning/Planner
- Culture Planning/Planner
- Innovation/Innovator
- Ventures/Venturist
- Disruptor/Creative Disruption & Destruction
- User Experience Researchers (UX)
- Design Thinking/Thinker
- Systems Thinking/Thinker
- Futures
- Changemaker/Changemaking
- Long Range Planning/Planner
- Scenario Planning/Planner
- Scenario Modeling
- Horizon Scanning/Scanner
- Emerging Technology/Technologist
- Cultural Strategist /Cultural Foresight
- Metaverse/Web 3 Strategist
- Researcher, Trends Researcher, Trend Analyst
- Forecasting/Forecaster
- Speculative Design/Futures
- Future Fiction
- Science Fiction
- Transhumanism/Transhumanist
- Singularity
- Cyberpunk
- Future Now
- Future Hacking
- Future You