The purposes of futures studies.

The primary goal of futurists is not to predict the future, but to uncover images of possible, probable, and preferable futures that enable people to make informed decisions about their lives.

The goals of futurists are, broadly speaking, to contribute toward making the world a better place

Of course, something similar may be said of many other occupational groups, from scientists, physicians, and religious leaders to artists, carpenters, farmers, and garbage collectors. Most members of such groups believe that they are contributing something to human well-being, whether it is knowledge, health, peace of mind, a beautiful or useful object, food, or the removal of waste.

A distinctive contribution of futurists is prospective thinking. Through prospective thinking, futurists aim to contribute to the well-being both of now-living people and of the as-yet-voiceless people of future generations. Futurists explore alternative futures - the possible, the probable, and the preferable.

The purposes of futures studies are to discover or invent, examine and evaluate, and propose possible, probable, and preferable futures. Futurists seek to know what can or could be (the possible), what is likely to be (the probable), and what ought to be (the preferable).

In this article, I will describe nine major purposes, or tasks, of futures studies.

1. The Study of Possible Futures

Exploring possible futures includes trying to look at the present in new and different ways, often deliberately breaking out of the straitjacket of conventional thinking and taking unusual, even unpopular, perspectives. It involves creative and lateral thinking in order to see realities to which others are blind. It involves thinking of present problems as opportunities and present obstacles and limitations as transcendable. It involves not only asking what is, but also asking what could be. It involves, most of all, expanding human choice.

Many human capacities in any society remain undeveloped and unrealized; that is, most people never develop more than a small fraction of their potential for learning and innovation. They generally fail to see the possibilities for change within themselves. As adults, people tend to trudge through life chained to the routines of everyday behavior that they have learned, oblivious to the more challenging and desirable alternatives open to them. This is at least partly because most of them have not been taught to look at the world as it could be. They have not been taught to search beyond the cultural conventions and manners of their own groups for possibilities either for their own personal futures or for their society's future.