Future studies

Future studies (also called futurology) is the effort to predict the future. It is difficult to make future predictions with certainty. However, some possible futures could have an enormous impact on wellbeing, so they are a serious utilitarian consideration.

Aspects of future studies
Here are three popular predictions:
 * Transhumanism: the human body is improved using technology
 * Existential risk: human civilisation is destroyed or crippled.
 * The technological singularity: a better than human artificial intelligence is created. This could create an explosion of increasing mental power and rapid technological progress.

The Future of Humanity Institute (FHI)
The Future of Humanity institute is a futurist research group.

Own statements
"Whilst the Future of Humanity Institute is currently small, it arguably represents humanity’s best effort to understand its future prospects and the existential challenges confronting our species.

Even a small increase in our understanding of these issues would be a valuable advance for humanity, given the extreme importance of what is at stake. We urgently need to become better at understanding the big picture within which we operate and the existential risks we face in this century.

FHI is pioneering research of immense importance. By showing how this can be done within the context of a world-class research university, we clear a path for others to follow. Our work has already achieved high recognition." -FHI

The Future of Humanity Institute’s mission is to bring excellent scholarship to bear on big-picture questions for humanity. We seek to focus our work where we can make the greatest positive difference. This means we pursue questions that are (a) critically important for humanity’s future, (b) unduly neglected, and (c) for which we have some idea for how to obtain an answer or at least some useful new insight." -FHI

"Our work spans four programmatic areas... :
 * Global catastrophic risks
 * Human enhancement
 * Applied epistemology and rationality
 * Future technologies"

Accomplishments
Selected Output

Donations
"At the present time, approximately half of our budget comes from the University's James Martin 21st Century School, and approximately half comes from a few visionary philanthropists."