Science fiction for turbulent times - future histories to inspire alterative policy thinking

Kim Stanley Robinson, an award-winning science fiction writer best known for the Mars Trilogy and Ministry of the Future, explores how science fiction shapes science representations in society and argues that understanding “totality” is essential in turbulent times. He explains how speculative futures are one of the few spaces to create cognitive maps to make sense of the complexity of global systems shaped by widening inequality and climate pressures. Robinson stresses that science fiction is not a prediction but constructs plausible future histories that allow us to contemplate what could happen, what we want to avoid, and what better trajectories look like. He argues that fiction can model stepwise transitions - not as policy prescriptions, but as narrative explorations of what social and economic alternatives might entail. 

Find out more in his conversation with Clare Stark.

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