The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented.

Dennis Gabor (1900-1979) Hungarian-British electrical engineer and physicist
Inventing the Future (1963)

Variants:

  • "We cannot predict the future, but we can invent it." [paraphrase of Gabor's origional by Nigel Calder in reviewing the book in New Scientist (Mar 1963).
  • "The way to cope with the future is to create it."
  • "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." [sometime attributed to Alan Kay]
  • "The best way to predict the future is to create it." [sometimes attributed to Forrest Shaklee and Peter Drucker]
  • "You cannot predict the future, but you can create it." [sometimes attributed to Peter Drucker]

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