Designing the Future: The Role of Technological Forecasting

Prehoda, Robert W. Designing the Future: The Role of Technological Forecasting. Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1967. Cited in Samuelson's "On Extrapolation: A Supplementary Bibliography," p. 238.

From the on-line annotated bibliography, in Edward Cornish et al., The Study of the Future: An Introduction to the Art and Science of Understanding and Shaping Tomorrow's World [Bethesda: World Future Society, 1977/1993]: 277); entry at this link. [...] Prehoda presents a rationale for man's potential ability to foresee accurately the future capabilities and results of applied science. [...] Prehoda describes several approaches to technological forecasting; his primary technique is through [...] "the Hahn-Strassmann point." The name comes from the Hahn-Strassman experiments in 1938, which showed the possibility of uranium fission. His method is to look for analogous situations, i.e., laboratory achievements which show the possibility of some major advance on a practical scale, then forecast the practical results which could be based on this laboratory achievement. [...]

Much of the book, according to Cornish et al., discusses scientific fields that promise "major advances in the practical sphere," with obvious hints for technology in SF.

RDE, completing, 26May19