About r/Futurology
In its own words:
A subreddit devoted to the field of Future(s) Studies and evidence-based speculation about the development of humanity, technology, and civilization. -------- You can also find us in the fediverse at - https://futurology.today
The community was created on Dec 12, 2011, which makes it 14 years old. Since Oct 19, 2026, it has gained 3,260 subscribers (+0.02%). Among the 11 communities on our technology list it is the largest. It sits just behind r/dataisbeautiful (#33) and ahead of r/gifs (#35) in our ranking.
What sets r/Futurology apart
It is a discussion-heavy community, with about 37.9 comments per post over its lifetime versus a Top 100 median of 16.2. Relative to its huge audience, posting is calm — around 0.9 new posts a day per million members, which puts it in the quietest fifth of the Top 100. A good post has less competition here.
Subscriber growth
Between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026, r/Futurology grew from 21,704,791 to 21,720,928 subscribers (+16.1K, +0.07%). That is about 403 new members per day. The chart uses our weekly snapshots (8 so far), so it gets longer every week.
Top posts on r/Futurology this week
This week’s highest-ranked posts, in Reddit’s own order (collected Oct 29, 2026).
- How tech billionaires are buying the narrative: Elon Musk's $1B Paramount deal has suffocated an independent documentary critical of himu/no_longer_huhman · Oct 25 · link
- Ultra-rich 0.1% produce more carbon pollution than nearly half of humanity while cashing in on the climate disasters they createu/Vucea · Oct 29 · link
- ‘Pure arrogance’: anger in Finland as Google illegally fells 250,000 trees for datacentreu/Confident_Salt_8108 · Oct 26 · link
- ICE plan to buy robot dogs spurs protest from hundreds of Boston Dynamics employeesu/Confident_Salt_8108 · Oct 27 · link
- Sam Altman: 'I No Longer Think We're Gonna Be Able to Just Patch All the Bugs'u/Gari_305 · Oct 24 · link
- 'It's offensively cheap': How solar power is quietly becoming bigger than nuclearu/iwantboringtimes · Oct 26 · link
- Major Banks Find Rogue AI Agents Inside Customer Accounts—And They're 'Horrified'u/Confident_Salt_8108 · Oct 24 · link
- AI use leads UC Berkeley math professor to see ‘no point’ in grading homeworku/Gari_305 · Oct 25 · link
- Bill Gates says to prepare for 20 years of ‘tumultuous’ AI disruptionu/Gari_305 · Oct 24 · link
- In Nigeria, Solar Panels Are the New Wedding Giftu/iwantboringtimes · Oct 23 · link
All-time top posts
The highest-ranked posts in the history of r/Futurology, from 2017 to 2023, ranked by Reddit.
- Elon Musk: We know we'll run out of dead dinosaurs to mine for fuel & have to use sustainable energy eventually, so why not go renewable now & avoid increasing risk of climate catastrophe? Betting th…u/everyEV · Dec 26, 2018 · 144,748 points · 5,106 comments · link
- F.C.C. Announces Plan to Repeal Net Neutralityu/izumi3682 · Nov 21, 2017 · 145,370 points · 3,088 comments · link
- Bernie Sanders says it's time for a four-day work week: "With exploding technology and increased worker productivity, it's time to move toward a four-day work week with no loss of pay. Workers must b…u/madazzahatter · Feb 22, 2023 · 128,412 points · 5,697 comments · link
- Andrew Yang launches nonprofit, called Humanity Forward, aimed at promoting Universal Basic Incomeu/lughnasadh · Mar 5, 2020 · 103,452 points · 4,814 comments · link
- It's time to implement a 4-day workweek, Andrew Yang says. The pandemic has made it important now more than ever.u/nicko_rico · Aug 11, 2020 · link
- Biden will announce on Tuesday a new plan to spend $2 trillion over four years to significantly escalate the use of clean energy in the transportation, electricity and building sectors, part of a sui…u/Wagamaga · Jul 14, 2020 · link
- President Biden will make entire 645k federal vehicle fleet US-made electricu/calmeagle11 · Jan 26, 2021 · link
- The ethics of the 4 day work week. It’s not just about the hours - “We should work to live, not live to work,” declared Britain’s shadow chancellor, who would reduce the standard working week to 32 h…u/mvea · Nov 4, 2019 · 87,945 points · 4,581 comments · link
- Bill Gates Thinks That The 1% Should Foot The Bill To Combat Climate ChangeMay 10, 2020 · link
- Germany will accelerate its switch to 100% renewable energy in response to Russian crisis - the new date to be 100% renewable is 2035.u/lughnasadh · Feb 28, 2022 · 85,579 points · 2,270 comments · link
What r/Futurology talks about
Across 142 recent posts (Oct 21–Oct 28), the words that come up most are “future”, “jobs”, “robots”, “technology” and “robot”. Other frequent themes are scientists, humans, job, hacking, internet and build. Recurring phrases include “artificial intelligence”, “smart glasses”, “robot dogs” and “byd latest”. By format, 59% are links, 37% are text posts and 4% are videos.
Popular post flairs: AI (50), Society (21), Robotics (12), Space (10), Discussion (10), Computing (6).
Activity and best time to post
r/Futurology gets about 20 new posts a day. The public archive holds 340,525 posts and 12,891,593 comments in total, about 37.9 comments per post. Last week the busiest day was Saturday (41 posts) and the quietest was Monday (12). Posting peaks around 15:00 UTC and is lowest around 22:00 UTC.
Rules of r/Futurology
The moderators of r/Futurology list 13 rules. In short:
- Rule 1 - Respect
- Rule 2 - Future Focus
- Rule 3 - Images
- Rule 4 - Petitions, Polls, and Fundraising
- Rule 5 - Bots require moderator permission to operate
- Rule 6 - Comment Quality
- Rule 7 - Account age
- Rule 8 - Negative Karma
- Rule 9 - No Duplicates
- Rule 10 - In Depth
How to join
Open reddit.com/r/Futurology and press “Join”. Read the community rules in the sidebar before you post: every subreddit is run by its own volunteer moderators.
Frequently asked questions
How many members does r/Futurology have?
r/Futurology has 21,720,928 subscribers (Oct 29, 2026), which makes it the #34 safe-for-work subreddit in the SubMouse ranking. It added 16,137 members between Sep 19, 2026 and Oct 29, 2026.
When was r/Futurology created?
r/Futurology was created on Dec 12, 2011, so it has been around for 14 years.
Is r/Futurology still active?
Yes. r/Futurology gets about 20 new posts a day (average of the last four weeks). Over its lifetime the archive counts 340,525 posts and 12,891,593 comments. In a sample of 142 recent posts we counted 78 different authors.
What is the best time to post in r/Futurology?
Based on post counts from Oct 21, 2026 to Oct 27, 2026, the busiest day was Saturday and the quietest Monday, and most posts arrive around 15:00 UTC, with the fewest around 22:00 UTC. More posts also means more competition, so a quieter hour can help a post get noticed.
What kind of posts are on r/Futurology?
The community describes itself as: “A subreddit devoted to the field of Future(s) Studies and evidence-based speculation about the development of humanity, technology, and civilization. -------- You can also find us in the fediverse at - https://futurolog…” Recent post titles often mention future, jobs, robots, technology and robot. Most posts are links (59%).
Is r/Futurology SFW?
Yes. Reddit does not mark r/Futurology as an 18+ (NSFW) community. SubMouse lists safe-for-work subreddits only.
What are the rules of r/Futurology?
Join the community on Reddit first, then use “Create post”. r/Futurology accepts both text and link posts. It has 13 posted rules, starting with: “Rule 1 - Respect”; “Rule 2 - Future Focus”; “Rule 3 - Images”. Moderators remove posts that break the rules, so read them in the sidebar before posting.
What subreddits are similar to r/Futurology?
Communities with similar topics include r/technology (20.6M), r/tifu (19M), r/nasa (5.9M), r/psychology (4.9M) and r/todayilearned (41.7M).
Stats from public data (data updated Oct 29, 2026; activity, rules and archive totals via the Arctic Shift archive, Oct 29, 2026; top posts from Reddit’s public feeds). Point and comment counts are archive snapshots and can be lower than on Reddit today. SubMouse is an independent directory and is not affiliated with Reddit or the moderators of r/Futurology.