Roy Charles Amara (7 April 1925[1] – 31 December 2007[2]) was an American researcher, scientist, futurist[3] and president of the Institute for the Future best known for coining Amara's law on the effect of technology.

He held a BS in Management, an MS in the Arts and Sciences, and a PhD in Systems Engineering,[4] and also worked at the Stanford Research Institute.

His adage about forecasting the effects of technology has become known as Amara's law and states: We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.

[5][6][7]The law has been used in explaining nanotechnology.

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