because the forces that dictate developments in the near term were unleashed years ago. The time beyond 50 year ahead is also difficult to foresee because of the changes that will certainly occur over the coming 50 years. Thus, the realm of the futurist is the range of five to 50 years ahead. The five basic period of the future are (1) the immediate future up to one year ahead, (2) the near term future one to five years ahead, (3) the middle range future five to 20 years ahead, (4) the long range future 20 to 50 years ahead, and (5) the far future beyond 50 years ahead (Cornish, 1991, p. 98).
The third postulate of futurism is the importance of ideas (Cornish, 1991, p. 99). Ideas about the future must be generated and studied. In essence, the future must be invented because it does not exist (Cornish, 1991, p. 99). Ideas are the tools of futurism. Ideas are categorized as concepts and theories. A concept "is a mental map," while a "theory . . . is an interlinkage of two
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