Jerome C. Glenn
Jerome C. Glenn, M.A. is the Cofounder and Executive Director of The Millennium Project, Chairman of the High-Level Expert AGI Panel for the Council of Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly, and a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science with over 50 years of futures research experience.
He is a leader in global futures research who has served as the executive director of The Millennium Project since 1996, producing the internationally recognized State of the Future annual reports for over 28 years.
As a pioneering futurist, Jerry invented the Futures Wheel methodology in 1972 and coined the term “futuring” in 1973, establishing foundational techniques still widely used in strategic foresight today.
Jerry currently leads The Millennium Project’s groundbreaking research on artificial general intelligence governance, having recently completed a three-phase international study involving 55 AGI experts worldwide addressing governance-related questions across English, Chinese, and Spanish, with Phase 2 assessing 40 regulations and 5 governance models by 229 participants from 65 countries. Read The Future of Futurists – Interview with Jerome Glenn.
He was contracted by the European Commission to contribute the AGI paper for their Horizon 2025–2027 program, arguing that the initial conditions for AGI will determine whether Artificial Super Intelligence will evolve to benefit humanity. Read Artificial General Intelligence. Issues and Opportunities – Paper and UN General Assembly President Requested to Convene Special Session on Future Artificial General Intelligence – AGI.
His work emphasizes that “governing AGI could be the most complex management problem humanity has ever faced.” Read Artificial General Intelligence Issues and Opportunities and Transition from Artificial Narrow to Artificial General Intelligence Governance.
Under Jerry’s leadership, The Millennium Project has evolved into a global participatory think tank with 70 Nodes around the world, conducting futures research on artificial general intelligence, science and technology, environment including climate change, education, economics, energy, and collective intelligence. Listen to #59–Transitioning to AGI, implications and regulations, with Jerome Glenn.
The organization’s flagship publication, the State of the Future, provides comprehensive assessments of humanity’s prospects by integrating forecasts, trends, and judgments from thought leaders worldwide. The 2017 State of the Future Index showed that “we are winning more than losing, so we have no right to be pessimistic; however, where we are losing is very serious, so we cannot fall asleep either.” Read State of the Future 19.1.
Jerry has also developed the Global Futures Intelligence System (GFIS), the world’s largest collection of internationally peer-reviewed methods to explore the future. Watch The Millennium Project’s State of the Future 20.0.
Throughout his career, Jerry has made significant contributions to global policy and security. He helped craft the section of the SALT II treaty (1979) that prohibited the USSR from deploying its Fractional Orbital Bombardment System. Read Visual Paradigm
In the 1980s, he created CARINET, a pioneering computer network that introduced data packet switching to numerous developing countries, laying crucial groundwork for internet access in lower-income nations. He was instrumental in getting x.25 packet-switched data transmission in 29 low-income countries in the mid-1980s, the key to low-cost access to the internet. Read Social Investor – The Future Needs Us.
Jerry has also authored numerous influential concepts including conscious-technology, self-actualization economy, transinstitutions, tele-nations, and definitions for environmental security and collective intelligence. Read his Future Mind and Space Trek: The Endless Migration.
From 1988 to 2007, Jerry served as Executive Director of the American Council for the United Nations University, providing liaison between the United Nations University in Tokyo and the United States. Earlier in his career, he was Deputy Director at Partnership for Productivity International from 1981 to 1985, where he managed and designed programs for micro-enterprise development and created innovative computer communications systems for developing nations.
From 1973 to 1975, he served as SYNCON coordinator for The Committee for the Future and became a founding partner of Future Options Room (FOR) in 1975, one of the first futures consulting firms with Alvin Toffler, Herman Kahn, Ted Gordon, and other leading futurists on its board.
Jerry was also instrumental in naming the first Space Shuttle the Enterprise, and sent his first email in 1973, demonstrating his early adoption of transformative technologies. Listen to Guest: Jerome C. Glenn, Futurist for AI governance.
Jerry earned his Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from American University in 1968, where he excelled in varsity wrestling and served as president of the international affairs organization. He earned his Master’s degree in Teaching Social Science-Futuristic Education from Antioch University New England in 1971, where he invented Futuristic Curriculum Development. He pursued doctoral studies (ABD) in Futures Research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst from 1971 to 1972, where he taught Futures Research and Futuristic Curriculum Development.
He has also received honorary doctorates from Universidad Franz Tamayo and Universidad Ricardo Palma. From 1968 to 1970, Jerry served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, East Africa, focusing on tuberculosis and leprosy programs. His efforts in tropical medicine and management to combat leprosy led Saturday Review to label Jerry as one of America’s most gifted leaders in a 1974 article.
Jerry’s expertise spans multiple advisory and board positions. He currently serves as Chairman of the Silicon Valley Innovation & Entrepreneurship Forum (SVIEF) since 2017, is a Member of the IEEE Council on Extended Intelligence, and serves as Associate Editor of IEEE Technology and Society.
He is a Member of the Cosmos Club, Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, and honorary lifetime emeritus member of the Association of Professional Futurists. He is also a Member of the Board of the Special Interest Group on Natural Computing in The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence, and a Member of the Advisory Board for Preprints.org.Since 2022, he has served as Academic President of the International Society for Interdisciplinary Studies of Symmetry (SIS).
Jerry has received numerous awards and recognitions throughout his career. In 2022, he received our Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award for defending against world existential risks, sharing the honor with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “If we don’t get the initial conditions ‘right’ for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI) could evolve without our awareness and not to our benefit,” says Jerry in his work to protect the human race from extinction.
He has been featured as a keynote speaker at prestigious venues including the World Bank, United Nations General Assembly, Bitcoin Miami Conference, and the Government Blockchain Association Summit at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Listen to Jerome C. Glenn on the State of the Future: We Are Winning More Than We Are Losing!.
Beyond his professional achievements, Jerry is known for his unique background as a retired boomerang stuntman who competed in international tournaments. His stunts included “William Tell,” where he would throw a boomerang out 30 or 40 yards and it would come back to knock a paper-mache apple off his head, and the “Molar Muncher,” where the returning boomerang would knock out a small boomerang held between his teeth.
Jerry lives in Washington, D.C., and describes his approach to futurism as similar to boomerang throwing: “Both require taking into account a variety of trends and forces, understanding how those trends and forces might interact with each other, and then calculating and considering the most likely possible futures.”
Read Futures Research Methodology Version 3.0 and watch Jerome Glenn on AGI Governance.
Visit his LinkedIn profile, Wikipedia page, Google Scholar page, and The Millennium Project profile. Follow him on Facebook and X.