How Can Science Fiction Help Design Better Science and Tech Policies?
Careless algorithms, disaster refugees, computer girlfriends: Many predicaments of our time came to life in science fiction long before they became science reality. Fiction can be a tool to explore the consequences of technological change more fully; as Ed Finn writes in Issues, “Good science fiction does not dream up just the automobile, but also the traffic jam.” Putting the future in context—in its own imagined world—forces writers to grapple with questions and consequences that could otherwise easily be glossed over (and often are).
How can we use fiction to fix our current “traffic jams”? Issues is partnering with Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination on Future Tense Fiction, a speculative fiction project that uses imagination to examine how science, technology, policy, and society might shape our futures. Join us on Thursday, February 20 at 3 p.m. ET for a conversation celebrating the launch with Ed Finn, William Hurd, Cole Donovan, and Malka Older, moderated by Lisa Margonelli, about how imagining fictional worlds can inspire us to make better realities.
Register now to join the conversation!
Panelists
- Ed Finn, founding director, Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University.
- Will Hurd, vice president of strategy at CHAOS Industries; former member of Congress.
- Malka Older, faculty associate at Arizona State University; executive director of Global Voices; and author of Infomocracy and more.
- Cole Donovan, former assistant director for international science and technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy.
- Lisa Margonelli (moderator), editor-in-chief, Issues in Science and Technology.
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