Ian Pearson, Futurologist

Much more accurate than Mystic Meg, much cheaper, but about the same dress sense

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About futurology

Just occasionally, everyone else is wrong!

I work as a Futurologist. I study the future. My day to day work, currently with BT, involves tracking developments across the whole field of technology and society, figuring out where it is all going next, and how that will affect our everyday lives. I take account of as many technology and social factors as possible. My main tools are: a strong background in science and engineering, trends analysis, common sense, reasonable business acumen, knowing when to listen to other people, and a whole lot of thinking. I usually get it right, but since the future is never totally predictable, I sometimes get it wrong too, about 15% of the time. But I specialise in doing long term stuff, so I have a lot of fun. I hope to be retired before anyone can prove me wrong.

Although I use the slightly wacky sounding title of futurologist, I’m just an engineer making logical deductions for tomorrow based on things we can already see happening. For example, if someone is investing heavily in a particular development, and there aren’t any obvious barriers to success, there is a good chance that they will succeed in due course. Keeping up with externals such as political, economic and social factors helps improve judgement as to whether products are likely to succeed, and how they might be used. Anyone with reasonable intelligence can do it, but it takes a lot of time to internalise the very many factors involved before you start getting it right. I learned from experience that computers are of limited use, because although there are many computer tools on the market, it usually takes longer to explain all the interconnections to a program than it does to analyse them yourself. I make no claim to be able to predict the future with absolute accuracy, but I think of it as like driving a car through fog. You can’t see a very clear picture of what is ahead, and sometimes you will misinterpret an apparent shape in the distance, but few of us would drive through fog without bothering to look out the window. Blurred vision is a lot better than none at all! The same is true for business, which is why BT employs me.

Some people claim to be able to predict the future by more dubious means. Astrologers, mystics, psychics, tea-leaf readers (and almost all other new age craft practitioners) generally talk total twaddle, often dressed up to look like science. They use scientific terms such as ‘energy’ and ‘vibration’ a lot, but in a nonsensical way. There are two kinds of such practitioners: fools and frauds. The fools actually believe what they say and are simply misguided. The frauds know it is rubbish but persist because it offers them a living. Both often use woolly language so that their predictions can be interpreted to fit almost any set of circumstances that arise. Occasionally they get it right by pure coincidence. Don’t be taken in by them. If these practices aren’t accepted by the scientific world, it’s not because no-one has checked them out. It’s because these things have been thoroughly checked out and they simply don’t work. It’s as simple as that. Check out the sceptics society for more information. They successfully debunk a large number of these so called professions.

By way of light-hearted evidence that it is all nonsense, even though I have no idea who you are or when you will read this, I offer the following ‘Mystic Meg’ style lottery prediction for this week: I see a plumber in Birmingham and an electrician from London, and a young man called Bob. They will all win prizes. Also, your stars show that you will soon hear from someone you haven't seen for a long time. How about some graphology and palm reading? Hold a sample of your handwriting up to the screen, and then put your palm on the screen so that I can feel your psychic harmonics, all things are connected through all time at the quantum level so it will work just fine, have faith. Ah yes, it’s all coming through now! I can tell from your vibration that you have quite a good sense of humour, that you have an inner artistic streak, you are a responsible driver and your ambient energy frequency shows that although you are usually quite sociable, you occasionally like to have time to yourself. But your fourth and seventh chakras are slightly out of balance, making your conscious self out of harmony with your heart, so you have probably had a tiff with someone you really care for recently, and although you are usually caring and creative, you have recently had a few periods when you have felt slightly drained. How’s that? There is a 70% chance or more that it works for you now, whenever you read it. If it doesn’t work, are you sure, perhaps your psychic aura is just concealing it from your conscious mind to protect you. Come back next week and try tying a red string around your wrist, it might work then, and get your crystal retuned, its energy field is probably out of alignment. Astrologers and other charlatans rely on the fact that if they get it right even occasionally, some mugs will fall for it. Please don’t be one of them. This stuff is all complete nonsense!