"Futurology" as a term was coined in the twentieth century. What counts under that term has changed over time; as such, this list is a jumble, and is intended to be suggestive, not definitive.
Notable futurologists include:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Name || Birth || Death || Field or notable accomplishment
|-
| Abishur Prakash || 1991 || living || geopolitical futurist, author
|-
|-David Bell || 2000 || Predicting magic 8 balls
| Adrian Berry || 1937 || 2016 || writer, journalist
|-
| Alan Marshall || 1975 || living || academic, environmentalist, social scientist, writer
|-
| Aldous Huxley || 1894 || 1963 || writer of Brave New World, psychedelic prophet
|-
| Alvin & Heidi Toffler || 1928/1929 || 2016/2019 || wrote Future Shock, and sequels, technological singularity
|-
|Anders Sandberg
|1972
|living
|human enhancement
|-
|Anders Sörman-Nilsson
|1981
|living
|digital transformation
|-
| Andrey Korotayev || 1961 || living || mathematical modeling of global future
|-
| Archibald Low || 1888 || 1956 || space
|-
| Arthur C. Clarke || 1917 || 2008 || writer
|-
|Ash Koosha
|1985
|living
|Futurist Composer and Producer
|-
|Ashis Nandy
|1937
|living
|writer on colonialism
|-
|Ben Goertzel
|1966
|living
|artificial general intelligence researcher, OpenCog
|-
|-
| Bertrand de Jouvenel || 1903 || 1987 || economist
|-
| Bill Joy || 1954 || living || UNIX, technology dangers
|-
| Jonathan Brill || 1967 || living || futurist, author, inventor
|-
| Bruce Sterling || 1954 || living || living design, information technology
|-
| Buckminster Fuller || 1895 || 1983 || architect, cosmologist, whole-systems thinker, designer/inventor
|-
| Carl Sagan || 1934 || 1996 || astronomer
|-
| Clement Bezold || 1948 || living || healthcare
|-
| Dandridge M. Cole || 1921 || 1965 || space colonization
|-
| Daniel Bell || 1919
| 2011
|"Post-Industrial Society"
|-
| Daniel Burrus || 1947 || living || futurist, business advisor, author
|-
| Darla Jane Gilroy || || living || futurist, trendspotting
|-
|David Passig || 1957 ||living ||anticipatory anthropology
|-
| Deane Hutton || 1941 || living || communicator
|-
| Dennis Gabor || 1900 || 1979 || holography
|-
| Dirk HR Spennemann || || living || space heritage
|-
| Donald Prell || 1924 || 2020 || venture capital, strategic foresight, technological singularity
|-
| Donella Meadows || 1941 || 2001 || systems thinking, leverage points, sustainability
|-
| Douglas Engelbart || 1925 || 2013 || hypertext, mouse, interactive computing
|-
| Douglas Rushkoff || 1961 || living || media theorist, writer, columnist, lecturer, graphic novelist, and documentarian, early cyberpunk culture, open source
|-
| Fabienne Goux-Baudiment || 1960 || living || strategic foresight
|-
| Edward Bellamy ||1850 ||1898 || wrote Looking Backward: 2000–1887 , a utopia about the future year 2000, economic reorganization
|-
|Eliezer Yudkowsky
|1979
|living
|friendly artificial intelligence
|-
| Erich Jantsch || 1929 || 1980 || book The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution
|-
| Faith Popcorn || 1948 || living || popcorn report
|-
| FM-2030 || 1930 || 2000 || transhumanist, essayist
|-
| Fred Polak || 1907 || 1985 || social studies, wrote The Image of the Future
|-
| Freeman Dyson || 1923 || 2020|| nuclear engineering, disarmament advocate, ideas of Dyson sphere, nuclear space-flight
|-
| Gaston Berger || 1896 || 1960 || cognitive science
|-
| Gene Roddenberry || 1921 || 1991 || creator of the Star Trek franchise.
|-
|Genevieve Bell
|1968
|living
|cultural anthropologist and technologist
|-
| George Dvorsky ||1970 || living || transhumanist
|-
| George Friedman || 1949 || living || geopolitics
|-
| George Gilder || 1939 || living || society
|-
| George Orwell || 1903 || 1950 || writer (wrote 1984)
|-
| Gerald Celente || 1946 || living || trend forecaster
|-
| Gerard K. O'Neill || 1927 || 1992 || envisioned space colonization
|-
| Gianroberto Casaleggio || 1954 || 2016 || politics, internet
|-
| Grace Hopper || 1906 || 1992 || women in computing, COBOL
|-
| H. G. Wells || 1866 || 1946 || writer, historian, among the first to think of himself as a futurist
|-
| Hans Moravec || 1948 || living || robotics, AI
|-
| Harlan Cleveland || 1918 || 2008 || diplomacy
|-
| Hazel Henderson || 1933 || 2022 || cooperative economics
|-
|Heiko Andreas von der Gracht
|1978
|living
|educator, strategic foresight
|-
| Herman Kahn || 1922 || 1983 || military strategist, econo-technical predictions
|-
| Hugo de Garis || 1947 || living || AI
|-
| Hugo Gernsback ||1884 || 1967 || invented the term "science fiction", wrote the novel Ralph 124C 41+, started science fiction magazines. After him the Hugo Awards are named.
|-
| Isaac Arthur || 1980 || living || Long term future of the space industry and colonization, physicist, YouTube personality
|-
| Isaac Asimov || 1920 || 1992 || writer of science and science fiction, created the Three Laws of Robotics.
|-
| Jacque Fresco || 1916 || 2017 || architect, resource economics, model maker, envisioned of cornucopian world
|-
| James Hughes || 1961 || living || ethics
|-
| James Lovelock || 1919 || 2022 || environmentalist, Gaia hypothesis, Global warming theorist
|-
| Jean Fourastié || 1907 ||1990 || economist
|-
| John McHale || 1922 || 1978 || artist, sociologist
|-
| Jeremy Rifkin || 1945 || living || economist, science and tech. critic of various sorts, writer
|-
| Jerry Fishenden || || living || Microsoft future
|-
| Jim Dator || || living || politics
|-
| Joanne Pransky || 1959 || 2023 || robotics
|-
| Joël de Rosnay || 1937 || living || molecular biology
|-
| John Michael Godier || || living || author, science communicator, futurist, YouTube personality
|-
| John Naisbitt || 1929 || 2021 || wrote Megatrends
|-
| José Luis Cordeiro || 1962 || living || engineer, economist, and author of La Muerte de la Muerte
|-
| Jules Verne || 1828 || 1905 || previsioned aviation, spaceflight, submarine travel
|-
| Karel Čapek || 1890 || 1938 || fiction writer who invented the word robot
|-
| Karl Marx || 1818 || 1883 || predicted societal and economic development on the basis of dialectical materialism
|-
| Kevin Kelly || 1952 || living || founding executive editor of Wired magazine and author of multiple futurology books
|-
| Kevin Warwick || 1954 || living || robotics
|-
| Kim Stanley Robinson || 1952 || living || novelist known for Mars Trilogy, 2312 (novel), Aurora (novel), and the forthcoming 'New York, 2140'
|-
| Krafft Arnold Ehricke || 1917 || 1984 || space colonization
|-
| Leonardo da Vinci || 1452 || 1519 || engineer, inventor, scientist
|-
| Lidewij Edelkoort || 1950 || living || fashion
|-
| M. G. Gordon || 1915 || 1969 || social studies
|-
| Magda Cordell McHale || 1921 || 2008|| painter, educator
|-
| Mahdi Elmandjra || 1933 || 2014 || economist, sociologist
|-
| Mark Pesce || 1962 || living || inventor, writer, engineer
|-
| Mark Satin || 1946 || living || political theory
|-
| Mark Stevenson || 1971 || living || author, entrepreneur, geo-technology
|-
| Marshall Brain || 1961 || 2024 || robotics, transhumanism
|-
| Marshall McLuhan || 1911 || 1980 || communications
|-
| Martin Ford || 1963 || living || artificial intelligence, robotics, author of New York Times bestseller Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
|-
| Matthew Simmons || 1943 || 2010 || peak oil, oil reserves
|-
|Max More
|1964
|living
|Extropy Institute
|-
| Meredith Thring || 1915 || 2006 || inventor
|-
| Michael Crichton || 1942 || 2008 || writer; implications of progress in science
|-
| Michael Rogers || || living || New York Times futurist; MSNBC commentator
|-
|Michel Saloff Coste
|1955
|living
|art, Club of Budapest
|-
| Michio Kaku || 1947 || living || string field theory, expositor
|-
|Mitchell Joachim
|1972
|living
|ecological design
Michel de Nostredame
|-
|Natasha Vita-More
|1950
|living
|Humanity+
|-
| Neal Stephenson || 1959 || living || novelist known for Snow Crash, Anathem, and Seveneves
|-
| Nicholas Negroponte || 1943 || living || OLPC, new technological media
|-
| Nick Bostrom || 1973 || living || philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, the reversal test, and consequentialism
|-
|Nicolas De Santis
|1966
|living
|Corporate Visioning, author, tech entrepreneur, founder Opodo
|-
| Nikola Tesla || 1856 || 1943 || energy, inventor
|-
| Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov || 1829 || 1903 || renewable energy, life extension/immortality, tranhumanism, space colonization
|-
| Orrin H. Pilkey ||1934 || 2024 || critic of environmentalists , coastline erosion
|-
| Ossip K. Flechtheim || 1909 || 1998 || political scientist
|-
| Patrick Dixon || 1957 || living || business
|-
| Peter C. Bishop || 1944 || living || educator - strategic foresight
|-
| Peter Diamandis
|1961
|living
|Singularity University
|-
| Peter Newman || 1945|| living || sustainability, transport systems, cars and cities
|-
| Peter Schwartz || 1946 || living || China, climate change, business, technology
|-
| Phil Salin || 1949 || 1991 || cyberspace and the Internet
|-
| Philip K. Dick ||1928 || 1982|| writer who produced the novels behind Blade Runner and Minority Report
|-
| Ray Kurzweil || 1948 || living || AI, transhumanism, technological singularity, life extension
|-
| Raymond Spencer Rodgers || 1935 || 2007 || telesphere, food-chain
|-
| Renzo Provinciali || 1895 || 1981 || anarchist
|-
| Richard Feynman || 1918 || 1988 || physicist, originator of concept of nanotechnology
|-
| Richard Moran || 1950 || living || social scientist
|-
| Richard Neville || 1941 || 2016 || author, reporter
|-
| Richard Slaughter ||1940 || living || sociologist
|-
| Robert A. Heinlein || 1907 || 1988 || novelist
|-
| Robert Anton Wilson || 1932 ||2007 || psychonaut, novelist, essayist
|-
| Robert Jastrow || 1925 || 2008 || NASA scientist, author, spaceflight
|-
| Robert Jungk || 1913 || 1994 || journalist
|-
| Robert Theobald || 1929 || 1999 || economics
|-
| Robin Hanson || 1959 || living ||prediction markets, singularity, transhumanism
|-
| Roger Bacon || 1220 || 1292 ||Franciscan Friar, Natural Philosopher
|-
| Ross Dawson || 1962 || living || futurist, speaker, author
|-
| Scott Smith || 1967 || living || "flatpack futures"
|-
|Sinead Bovell
|1989
|living
|Blogger
|-
| Sohail Inayatullah || 1958 || living || political scientist
|-
| Stanisław Lem || 1921 || 2006 || novelist
|-
|Stephen Hawking
|1942
|2018
|astrophysics, cosmology
|-
| Stewart Brand || 1938 || living || cognitive science, environmental philosophy, whole systems
|-
| Sydney Jay Mead || 1933 || 2019 || visual futurist
|-
| Terence McKenna || 1946 || 2000 || philosopher, psychonaut, speaker, ethnobotanist
|-
| Ted Nelson || 1937 || living || writer, philosopher, creator of hypertext concept and Xanadu project
|-
| Theodore Modis || 1943 || living || business, physics
|-
| Thomas Frey || 1954 || living || futurist speaker, technology, future jobs, future of work, future crimes, future of transportation, unanswerable question
|-
| Tim Cannon || 1979 || living || technology, transhumanist
|-
| Timothy Leary || 1920 || 1996 || psychologist, psychedelics enthusiast, transhumanist, space migration, life extension
|-
| Vannevar Bush || 1890 || 1974 || analog computing, envisioned Memex, similar to what the internet is now
|-
| W. Warren Wagar || 1932 || 2004 || historian
|-
| Walt Disney || 1901 || 1966 || filmmaker, businessman, created "Tomorrowland" and a concept Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (referred to by acronym EPCOT)
|-
| Walter Greiling || 1900 || 1986 || chemist, sociologist
|-
| Warren Ellis || 1968 || living || writer
|-
| Wendell Bell || 1924 || 2019 || sociology
|-
| William Gibson || 1948 || living|| novelist (cyberpunk)
|-
| William Gilpin || 1813 || 1894 || politician
|-
| Willis Harman || 1918 || 1997 || sociocultural evolution
|-
| Ziauddin Sardar || 1951 || living || Muslim thought
|}
See also
- Futures studies
- Outline of futures studies
- World Future Society