Talk:Futures studies
Thanks, Meg...
For extending this. Around 1968, in what was one of my first part-time jobs in college, I worked for a consultant to the U.S. Office of Naval Research, with the job of looking through the basic research they had funded and identifying potential or confirmed Hahn-Strasseman points. My work was buried in some government reports I have absolutely no idea how to find, but I do remember some of the results.
For example, they funded basic research in chemistry in the fifties, leading to a class of compounds called nitropolymers. In the separate field of developing guided missiles, specifically solid propellant rocket motors of high energy to weight, the field stalled until there could be a Hahn-Strasseman point in fuel chemistry. Submarine-launched ballistic missiles were not feasible until propellants with the energy of nitropolymers became available. The Navy actually had been unaware, at first, that one of their research programs had been the necessary breakthrough for their development of the UGM-27 Polaris missile.
Is this a "topic informant" or simple expert experience source for the article? Howard C. Berkowitz 12:10, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
- The latter. Should there be a separate article for Futurology? Some sources make a distinct separation between the two. Meg Ireland 12:17, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
- Well, when I was doing my active research, the term "futurology" was unknown. The most common serious term was "technological forecasting", which wasn't as dramatic. Howard C. Berkowitz 12:26, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
Anyone wanna explain...
...what the difference between Futures Studies and Futurism (in the sense of people pontificatin' about the future, rather than, say, the art movement) is? Synonyms? Or is it like theology and religious studies or morals and ethics or something similarly subtle to outsiders? –Tom Morris 16:10, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
- Well, the article title represents something of a compromise. When I worked in the area, we called it "technological forcecasting", and there were quite specific predictive methodologies, ranging from Prehoda's search for Hahn-Strasseman points, to Delphi method studies intended to elicit expert opinion without personality dominance, to thought experiments that produced concepts such as teledildonics (actually useful in thinking about virtual reality). --Howard C. Berkowitz 19:02, 23 January 2010 (UTC)