Futuretimeline.net

futuretimeline.net (stylized as FutureTimeline.net, sometimes written Future Timeline or FT) is a futurology and news website established by London-based writer and futurist William James Fox in 2008. It features a far reaching timeline about notable future events based on several predictions made by various futurists, as well as articles about current notable events, mainly breakthroughs, in various sciences.
Concept.
Content.
futuretimeline.net features a speculative timeline of predictions about notable events of the future of humanity and the universe which is divided in four different sections:
Topics.
The website contains predictions about various topics like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, biology, medicine, business, politics, computing, the internet, energy, home, leisure, war, nanotechnology, physics, demographics, space, transport, infrastructure and many more.
Design.
Over the years, futuretimelinet.net changed its site construction and appearance many times. Before 2013, there were five sections:
In 2013, the sections were like they are today, but the 21st century was divided in 2000-2049 and 2049–2099. The description for the years 2020-2049 stayed the same as it was for the 21st century, and the description for the years 2049-2099 was written new: "Desperate attempts are made to stabilise Earth's climate, as a post-capitalist world begins to emerge."
After 2013, the dividing of the 21st century was removed, and the website was the same as today in terms of design, except for the thumbnails for the years and sections.
References.
Most of the predictions of futuretimeline.net are based on current trends, long-term environmental change and sources like official documents, announcements or government future goals, extrapolation, lectures and (scholarly) articles, books or other literature by popular futurists and scientists like Ray Kurzweil, Michio Kaku, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Stephen Hawking, Aubrey de Grey, Elon Musk, and more and may be updated if new information is available, very similar to the concept of Wikipedia.
The website also features a variety of other references like artworks, graphics, interviews, videos, external links and more.
Predictions.
The predictions of futuretimeline.net are generally more conservative and pessimistic than those of popular futurists and propose a slightly more dystopian future, for example, the site predicts that the USA will fall rapidly in terms of economical power and that "Climate change will begin to have a significant impact on worldwide commodities" and that "In the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere, growing instability will lead to a number of resource wars" in the 2020s. In the early years of the website, it was also possible to submit predictions.
Most of the predictions of the website assume that humanity will not die out until the end of the universe.
Other.
Over time, more features were added to the website, such as a blog, a forum and more.
There are also channels on social media as well as a mobile app.
In 2020, another website by William James Fox, called pasttimeline.net, went online, which should cover notable events of the past. However, the links on this website don't work yet.
Reception.
ZDNet meant that the website "captivates" and the predictions are "intriguing", even though some facts listed are "great trivia", such as that the FIFA World Cup trophy will need to be replaced in 2038.
wonderottech.com meant that "[...] Future Timeline, is a fascinating compilation of past and future events [...]" which "[...] combines the exciting with the sobering [...]"
futurescience.com ranked futuretimeline.net the 8th best website about the future and meant that the site "feels old-school in its design" but "contains an almost encyclopedic overview of futurist topics and is one of the few sites to attempt to delineate a timeline of progression."
Feedspot ranked it on place 4 of the 50 best futurism blogs and websites.
Page visits.
In November 2020, futuretimeline.net was visited 412,100 times, 40.36 percent of the visitors are from the United States, 12.23 percent from the United Kingdom, and 9.24 percent are from Canada.