The word futurist is quite generative. From it we get the arts movement that so influenced science fiction for better and for worse during the Pulp Era, as discussed in the previous half of this article. However, there is another more modern usage: people and organizations in the business of predicting future trends. In this sense, science fiction is not futurist despite claims to the contrary. The physics of exactly how Chewie punches the Millennium Falcon through hyperspace is handwaved away, and thirty years after A New Hope, hyperdrive technology remains at the edges of pseudo-science. And that’s okay.
In Search of Afro-Solarpunk, Part 2: Social Justice is Survival Technology
