| [Return to Home Page] (July 2003) Feedback on 'Freeform Futurology (1) - What Can & Cannot Be Done - The Limits of Futurology' Lucy Schmeidler (June 2000) LUCY SCHMEIDLER writes (June 2000): Your discussion of future trends in technology and sociology is enough to make an aspiring SF writer either give up, because imagining the future is too hard, or launch into a frenzy of new stories, because the futurologist's can't extrapolate any better than the rest of us. ERIC LINDSAY writes (June 2000): I found a whole bunch of 1960's books on futurology in my collection. One day I'll write up some of the predictions in them. Some look like real fun. MARGARET ORCHARD writes (June 2000): One of the reasons why some of the things that were predicted, eg the cars with atomic power, never came to be available is that the oil cartels wanted to keep their wealth. That would not have happened if they had allowed other forms of power to be researched and perfected for transport. BILL WRIGHT writes (June 2000): "There are two things that it is easy for a futurologist to do," you say, and then proceed to list three. Interesting ideas. I am looking forward to next issue when your 'Philosophy of History' will clarify the discussion of trends. Hopefully one is optimism. In an unpredictable universe, there must be optimism. JEANNE MEALY writes (June 2000): Thanks for your ponderings on futurology and its challenges. It's frustrating to me to feel like we could predict what is likely to happen next, yet we can also be so far off. Copyright © 2003 by Michael F. Green and others. All rights reserved. Last Updated: 24 April 2004 |