Archival audioclip (Back to the Future): I’m from the future.

Lauren Goode: Alright, I’m gonna ask the question that everyone’s wondering about: What is a futurist? Is this a real job?

Gideon Lichfield: Well, I mean, I think some people imagine it’s just, you know, a guy who sits around making predictions about the future, and there are probably some people who do just that. But Noah calls himself an applied futurist, by which he means that he studies trends—technological, economic, demographic, political, you name it. And then he works within…