Jim Dator

James Allen Dator was born in 1933.¹ He was a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and director of its Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies.¹ The centre says its activities are overseen by him, and that he was Secretary General and then President of the World Futures Studies Federation.² He was one of the three founders of the Institute for Alternative Futures in 1977, with Alvin Toffler and Clement Bezold.⁴ Since retiring he has advised the UK-based School of International Futures.¹

He describes how the centre uses alternative futures, or scenarios, in a visioning process for a community or organisation: appreciating the past, understanding the present, forecasting, experiencing alternative futures and envisioning a preferred one, usually 20 to 50 years ahead.³ The futures to be experienced are four generic ones: continuation, collapse, discipline and transformation.³ "There is no single future 'out there' to be predicted," he writes; there are many alternative futures to be anticipated.³

The entry on foresight and anticipation names him at the Hawaii centre and quotes his four generic futures and his limits on prediction.