What makes you a futurist?

Posted On Friday, 15 July 2011 07:18

by Joey Ricard

I have been hearing and seeing this term "Futurist" pop up and its seeming to be more of a trending term. So I started to see what defines a Futurist.

A real Futurist personally, is a psychic, otherwise we are looking at a person who just understands certain realms of an industry and is educated in that field or subject. A Futurist is a coined term of predicting where things are going based on current trends. The problem is, everyone is just calling themselves a futurist, and not having a focused area of concentration like science, technology, politics, entertainment, fashion, education, or even food.

For me, learning where technology has been heading has always helped me to understand where I need to be when things change. It’s always been as if a Hurricane was coming but you didn’t know until the day of it arriving. Knowing a week ahead makes all the difference when that storm is coming and you are more prepared for it so it doesn’t devastate you or your business.

When you are deciding on being a futurist, I would first recommend staying in one area of expertise, don’t wander into other fields just because you know a good overview of the subject or have been reading news articles on it.

For instance, did you know they have developed a living microbicide that has prevented HIV infection in up to 63% percent of monkeys it was tested on? Or how about that 2 out of 3 babies born from an HIV positive woman come out negative in HIV test results? Maybe the human immune system is learning to fight certain strands of HIV naturally. Or what about the fact that they have developed daily medication tenofovir and  emtricitabine, which they have got the cost down to 25 cents per day, and will actually slow down the infection up to 75%? Maybe between babies being born with an only 33% infection rate of positively infected mothers, figuring out how to keep the microbicides in condoms active, and creating long acting HIV prevention medication, we be able to stop AIDS from spreading in the next 5 years, and maybe remove it from the planet in 10.

Now, is this me being a Futurist of Science? No, this is me reading various websites and putting the research into a easy to understand format.

If you want to be a futurist you need to focus on what you currently know and expand on the new developments in that industry. If your just reading news feeds, you're just regurgitating what you read and you don't understand the technical requirements to complete the ideas you have.

Here's what I recommend to start:

1. Figure out what field of expertise you have, or where you want to see trends happening.
2. Find a great news source for it, and spend at least an hour a day reading about it.
3. Find forums or groups that talk about the subject, and brainstorm with them about the changes in the industry.
4. Start to write your own opinions about that subject. Then, start brainstorming new ideas for the industry.
5. Get involved!

I have had people tell me that I have told them about something a few years before it happens in the technology field. If you read up on an area that you already understand but also read about new things in the industry, you will be able to dictate where things may be leading.

What do you think CDROM manufactures did? Or how about laser disc manufactures? Or how about floppy disk companies? Do you think they just sat there and watched their empire crumble? Or do you think they helped develop the new technology and standards for implementing it?

A Futurist should not just talk about the future, they participate in changing it and developing the industries into what they are thinking. Now a good Futurist with a business brain doesn’t go around telling everyone where the market is going. They strategically place themselves in those markets, so when the change is getting critical mass, they are ready to supply the market with the demand required. That’s where the successful data-storage manufacturing companies come in, and the successful ones are still leading the market today.

Currently you see Western Digital increasing storage on laptops, because more people are using these versus desktops. You also see them increase SSD based systems or moving to new storage types. The smart ones have been working on large storage devices for the mobile market over the past couple years besides just SD cards. In the future, you wont have information on multiple devices; you will have one device that carries all your personal documents, but is tethered to all your other things like laptops, desktop, TV, car, Xbox, etc. but will have terabytes of available space.

Some of the real futurists in history were also inventors. They didn’t just have an idea of what they wanted to make, a lot of time they saw what their invention would lead to, and the innovation it would inspire.

• Jules Verne, wrote about underwater travel (submarines) way before they were invented, as well as airplanes etc.
• Thomas Edison, gave us the first light bulb, and gave us so much more that we use today, like the motion picture and telecommunication.
• Henry Ford, created the first mass produced automobile, and revolutionized how business was completed in the US.

If someone tells you they are a Futurist, ask them what fields of expertise are they focused in. Also, find out if they have any inventions, patents, innovative ideas that have lead to successful businesses, and learn to discern the real futurist versus a person who just wants to talk nonsense.

A real futurist will not have a degree in “Futurism”, they should have advance education in a certain industry and maybe educated in philosophy as well. I believe they will not define themselves as a “futurist” but the people around them and in the industry will.