future history
Tomorrow's past, imagined
Future history is a genre of science fiction that presents imagined events as if they were historical fact, often spanning centuries or millennia of human development.
The term captures the paradox of treating what hasn't happened as already past: Asimov's Foundation series is classic future history.
Writers sometimes create detailed timelines showing how humanity progresses from the present to their fictional setting.
- time machineDevice enabling temporal journeys
- time travelMovement across temporal points
- deep timeImmense spans of Earth's history
- psychohistoryPsychology applied to history
- Golden AgeLegendary period of perfection
world-building · speculative fiction · world building · grand narrative · Isaac Asimov · space opera · visionary · Hugo Awards · social commentary · dystopia · utopian society · singularity · robot uprising · galactic empire · artificial intelligence · foresight · space exploration · extrapolation
- speculative fictionsci-fi, science fiction, dystopia, fantasy, utopia
- sci-fi conceptstime travel, space exploration, faster-than-light, generation ships, multiverse
- alternate historiescounterfactual, divergent timeline
- AsimovI Robot, psychohistory, positronic brain, Gaia, Bicentennial Man
future historyrecorded history
Past preserved through documentation
historical record · ancient history · prehistory · annals · chronicles
future, history, futures, futurism, futurist, futuristic, futuristically, futurity, historic