I plead a bad week

Condolences, TEd - mine was the week before

the word you are looking for may be futurist
Are futurists people who do "futurology", as mentioned by tsuwm? Or would those be "futurologists"?

I've read Toffler, and was especially impressed by The Third Wave. I'm not sure that Futureshock has come to pass, though. People actually handle an incredible rate of change better than Toffler expected; and it's also never the case that everything changes, so maybe the demands aren't that great.

I suppose I'd see Toffler as more of a "straight line" futurist, projecting the past into the present then following that line into the future.

I don't know about Buckminster Fuller, but get the impression that he's more quirky and occasionally brilliant . More of a (errm, still trying to get the words) "revolutionary" futurist, happy to take major leaps on the basis of proto-seedlings (whaat?)

If my impression of Fuller is correct, I'm trying to get a word for something that Fuller does better than Toffler.

My brain hurts.