Reflections on the past and future of the future

This anniversary is an occasion for celebrating what has been done, but also for mourning the people lost and opportunities missed over these 20 years. Celebrating and mourning are both essential to getting ready for what is next. Herman Kahn, John McHale, Henry David, Aurelio Peccei, and Bertrand de Jouvenel are all gone and are sorely missed, although their distinctive minds continue to influence what we do. The Institute for the Future (itself just out of its teens), which the author follows with a cofounder’s fondness, has already become venerable as such things go, but the USC Center for Futures Research is no more, which is a pity. Such things remind us that the future contains our own demise, and the rise of others who may think and work quite differently, in very different places, and on different things than we are used to.