Prediction

When picturing humanity's future, dark visions are everywhere - but are there alternatives? Historian Thomas Moynihan explores what we can learn from forecasters 100 years ago.

A century ago, a little-known series of books about the future tackled everything from science to monogamy. Max Saunders argues that it deserves to be rediscovered.

When humanity acquired the ability to imagine the future, it changed our trajectory. But in the age of the Anthropocene, we need to harness this mental skill now more than ever.

Our lives tend to run smoothly and predictably most of the time, but they are also prone to intermittent instability with devastating consequences.

If we were to create a time capsule of objects that captured life in 2020, what might we choose?

Entire teams of people spend their days imagining what might happen in a crisis to ensure we can be better prepared for when the worst really does happen.

When we asked our readers to predict the outcomes of key moments over the last year, it revealed some surprising lessons about how to predict the future.

Nine months into BBC Future and Nesta’s prediction challenge, we’ve checked in on our readers’ predictions on Brexit, the European elections and the fate of the pound.