What will happen next? Human beings have been asking themselves this question for as long as we know. For many this was a question to be pondered and answered by prophets and the supernatural. Others consulted the stars and nature looking for patterns that might provide a window to the unknown. Since the Enlightenment many have looked to the sciences. Whole industries have been created to predict the future. These are intimately tied to economics and intelligence fields and involve the management of risk. Modern popular culture has also played a role as well by depicting the future in mass media. How often have humans been “right” about the future? Where have the best predictions and forecasts come? What role does our view of the future affect our behavior in the present? These topics and more will be covered in this three-part course. The first portion of the course deals with how humans have viewed the future throughout history. The second focuses modern methods on how one might forecast the future using historical narratives, trend and data analysis, as well as markets. In this section students will use history as a laboratory and explore counter-factual what-ifs a bit of “social science fiction.” The final section of the class will focus on current views of the future and what “futurists” today (including the students) think about the “shape of things to come.”