I cringe every time i have to call myself a data scientist, but I guess I should be thankful I don't have to yet call myself an academically trained futurist :P

Haha, yes, I'd trade futurist for data scientist.

In academic circles, we're called foresight or futures studies field but no one knows what that is.

I can't believe this is a real thing. I really thought you were pulling a high-quality troll.

It legitimately sounds like you belong working at the Ministry of Magic.

madamelic, yeah I've gotten a lot of funny looks from people. When I explain that its relates to scenario planning, it sounds a bit less silly.

There are some govts, like in Finland or Singapore, that invest heavily in futures studies. Singapore Gov't has multiple foresight teams within the prime minister's office, ministry of trade etc. UAE has a quasi-Ministery of the Future: https://www.mocaf.gov.ae/en

I'd rather be working at the Ministry of Magic though. :p

Oh, I wasn't like putting down your work. From what I found poking around it sounds like an important field.

Just the name cracked me up. :)

Have you read The Futurological Congress by Stanisław Lem? That's the first thing that came to my mind after reading about your profession.

I have not, but I'll check it out. I've read "The Futurist" which is also a satirical look. I think the field can be made better with a healthy dose of introspection via satire, so I welcome reading this book. Thanks!

> "What does this mean?"

I have a Masters in Foresight and I'm a member of the Association of Professional Futurists. The field is commonly referred to as foresight and futures studies. We're sort of an awkward field, so at some universities, future studies program can be found under the school of design, political science, and technology.

In terms of careers, academically-trained futurists can be found in a few industries: defense, energy, and pharmaceuticals. My schoolmates from my program work at Disney, CPGs, and governments (defense, prime minsters office). In tech, I think Facebook and Mozilla also have foresight people.

Our field is by definition multi-disciplinary, so we had to learn a bit of everything: systems thinking, scenario planning, social change, business strategy, etc.

> "The future as it is and has been coming to pass? How we, today and recently, culturally portray the idea of the future?"

More so how we culturally portray the future. There are a lot of cultural preconceptions that are incorporated in visions of the future.

I grew up with Star Trek (TOS) and my dad is ex-NASA, so I'm well acquainted with the traditional American view of the future, but I'm also a strong supporter of the need for a diverse range of alternatives.

For example, Sohail Inayatullah of UNESCO writes a lot about alternative Muslim futures. They're not tech-based at all but thinking about political, economic, and social changes.

Not OP but futurist is a defined career path and futurism an academic discipline.