Imaginary Papers: Issue 20

Learn new skills to navigate your transition and define your post-service success.

Arizona STEM Acceleration Project (ASAP) is a new initiative transforming how Arizona’s K-12 educators deliver high-quality, hands-on STEM activities to our state’s future leaders.

How VIP Can Change Your Trajectory

The Applied Sci-Fi Project, made possible by support from the Sloan Foundation, is an event series and research project that brings together science fiction writers, futurists, scholars, and technologists to

EVOKE: The Collaborative Process from Science & the Imagination on Vimeo.

Leah Newsom, Samuel Clamons & Andrew Dana Hudson

Philipp Kürten, Chinelo Onwualu & Christopher Cokinos

with Leigh Alexander and Mia Armstrong-López

On August 21st, 2024, ASU CSI will partner with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1972 sci-fi movie, “Silent Running”. Get tickets here!

Register (in person) Register (Zoom) Date and time: Tuesday, June 4, 2024, 12:00-1:30pm Eastern / 9:00-10:30am Arizona When we think of climate, the stories we tell about the future are

Alexis Lothian, David J. Staley & Joey Eschrich

with Souvik Mukherjee & Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay

A collection of essays exploring how the blurring of media forms—transmedia—became the default for how we experience narratives, and how that cultural transformation has redefined the worlds of education, entertainment, and our increasingly polarized public discourse.

Center for Science and the Imagination celebrates 10 years

Bob Beard on how to make long-term plans amid the culture shock of civilian life. Slate.com

“You know, we’re trying to populate the desert, well you can’t do it without food,” said Curtis Merritt. Merritt is sharing his vision for the future of agriculture, one that

Veterans Imagination Project helps vets craft future narratives, find success ASU News

Erin K. Wagner, Joe Tankersley & Joey Eschrich

with Siyang Gao & Emily Xueni Jin

A collection of fiction, nonfiction, and art exploring positive climate futures, grounded in real science and in the complexities of diverse human and physical geographies.

On January 24, 2024, ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1965 Italian Sci-Fi classic “Planet of the Vampires.” The film was introduced by Dr. Serena Ferrando. Click here to read her introduction “Introducing Terrore nello spazio.”

On April 24, 2024, ASU CSI will partner with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1995 Sci-Fi Blockbuster “Total Recall.” Get tickets here!

On March 27, 2024, ASU CSI will partner with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1981 Post-Apocalyptic classic “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” Get tickets here!

On February 28, 2024, ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1973 Sci-Fi classic “Westworld.” The film was introduced by series curator, Devan Hakkal. Read his introduction “An Epidemic in the Wild West” here.

This is a ten episode series hosted by Jenna Hanchey, Chinelo Onwualu, and Yvette Lisa Ndlovu that explores the work of ten African speculative fiction authors and imagining new futures for the continent.

In this conversation, Wole speaks about gods going on heists and how technologies hold the potential to bring us together in alternative histories and imagined futures.  

Tracing Pathways to Positive Climate Futures Zoom Webinar – Register This event starts at 1:00 pm Arizona time, which is 12:00 pm Pacific and 3:00 pm Eastern. When we think

In this conversation, Kemi takes us to galaxies far, far away, reimagining the hero’s journey through African-centered space opera. 

In this conversation, Suyi talks to us about godpunk, Stranger Things, and how to support African and other marginalized writers…

In this conversation, Tlotlo talks with us about queerness, the dead, and how African surrealist stories illuminate the politics of African urban landscapes.

David K. Seitz, Katherine Buse, Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal & Joey Eschrich

In this special episode of Griots & Galaxies, Yvette interviews her cohost, editor and author Chinelo Onwualu. Chinelo shares with us her experiences as cofounder of Omenana and a forerunner in African speculative fiction…

with Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal & Katherine Buse

In this conversation, Shingai talks to us about building community across the African diaspora, and challenges us to consider that taking African knowledges seriously means rethinking time itself.

In this conversation, Temi talks to us about neuroscience, corporate control, and how futures of AI technologies relate to histories of racism and colonialism.

In this conversation, Ayodele talks to us about African metaphysics and the importance of queer and gender-expansive characters to resisting colonization. 

In this episode of Griots & Galaxies, Chinelo and Yvette sit down with critically-acclaimed author Tobi Ogundiran. In this conversation, Tobi takes us into horror and haunting, talking about how fairytales reveal what different societies fear–and lo…

In this episode of Griots & Galaxies, Jenna sits down with award-winning singer/songwriter and author Mohale Mashigo. In this conversation, Mohale shares her experiences in multimedia storytelling, and questions if aliens are truly as scary as Weste…

For Grades 9-12 Created by Annie Holub INTRODUCTION For Teachers  This Solar Tomorrows Project was designed by Annie Holub over the summer of 2023 as part of the Solar Tomorrows Fellowship at

Just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit North America in 2020, the Center for Science and Imagination and Center for Energy and Society at Arizona State University convened a collection of

Mateo Díaz Choza, Devan Hakkal & Joey Eschrich

On September 20, 2023 ASU CSI will partner with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1987 action classic, RoboCop. The film will be introduced by Dr. Jenny Brian. Get tickets here!

On October 18, 2023 ASU CSI will partner with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present 1998 cerebral blockbuster, The Truman Show. The film will be introduced by Bob Beard. Get tickets here!

On November 8, 2023 ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 2018 independent film, Prospect, starring Pedro Pascal. The film was introduced by Dr. Jenna Hanchey. Click here to read her introduction “On Prospect.”

On August 16, 2023 ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1975 cult classic, Rollerball. The film was introduced by Matt Bell. Click here to read his introduction “Rollerball and the Future We’re Racing Towards .”

  This episode of The Imagination Desk features Michael G. Bennett, a lawyer and legal scholar, scholar of science, technology and society, visual artist, and higher education leader. In this chat, we discuss different ways that artists use imagination…

In this episode of The Imagination Desk, we sit down with science fiction and fantasy author Christopher Rowe to have a conversation about the relationship between imagination and faith, and how imagination influences our view of the universe.    Chris…

In this episode of The Imagination Desk, we sit down with cultural producer, performer, and inclusion expert Claudia Alick. In this conversation, Claudia speaks about Black imagination and futures, and shares her perspectives on ways to create safer an…

with Gareth Damian Martin & Phoebe Wagner

On February 15, 2023 ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1981 space western, Outland. The film was introduced by Dr. Ben Fong.

On January 18, 2023, ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 1973 eco-thriller, Soylent Green. The film was introduced by Dr. Christy Spackman. Click here to read her introduction “Can you see the cow? On Jell-O, Mormon Musicals, and Soylent Green.”

How to Build Collective Visions of the Future Using Sci-Fi & Foresight Tools Applied Sci-Fi | Ep. 4: Reimagining the Future of [X]The Applied Sci-Fi Project at Arizona State University’s

Jenna N. Hanchey, Erin K. Wagner & Joey Eschrich

On April 19, 2023 ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill to present the 2013 science-fiction romantic comedy, Her. The film was introduced by Dr. Ed Finn. Read his introduction “Navigating Love and Artificial Intelligence in a Rapidly Evolving World” here.

with Pamela Carralero & Matthew Derby

The Solar Tomorrows Fellowship reaches educators and learners of all ages throughout Arizona through educational materials about solar technologies and choices, clean-energy transitions, and issues of energy equity and justice.

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023, ASU CSI partnered with Majestic Neighborhood Cinema Grill for a screening of Terminator 2. The film was introduced by Dr. Aviva Dove-Viebahn. Click here to read her introduction “Terminator 2: The Evolution of a Sci-Fi Icon.”

Pamela Carralero, Judy Goldsmith, and Suzette Brooks Masters

Clark A. Miller Energy Democracies for Sustainable Futures

Clark A. Miller The Green New Deal and the Future of Work

Program Director Bob Beard and former participant Erik Villegas appear on Arizona PBS to explain more about the methods used and why thinking about the future can be a helpful tool in military to civilian transition.

When someone says they want to know the future of something, what they are really saying is they want to know what the state or behavior of some complex adaptive system is going to be at point n in the future. Visionary Histories makes the case for the disciplined study of the future via the historical method, arguing that historians are well-positioned to anticipate the possible future behaviors of a wide variety of systems.  

Zoyander Street, Jason Tashea & Joey Eschrich

This episode of Imagination Desk features Fabrice Guerrier. In this conversation, Fabrice discusses how he uses imagination, and how imagination can be used to create better social futures.

This episode of the Imagination Desk features Laura Tohe, poet laureate of the Navajo Nation for 2015-2019, discussing how imagination informs her work and how it is used in both the poetry community and Indigenous communities. 

This episode of Imagination Desk features Corey Pressman. In this conversation, Corey discusses what applied imagination means to him, his work, and the future.

This episode of Imagination Desk features Lisa Kay Solomon. In this conversation, Lisa discusses different applications of design thinking and futures thinking, and incorporating creativity and imagination into interdisciplinary fields and everyday life.

Center for Science and the Imagination Annual Report 2021-22 PDF Annual Report 2021-22 EPUB

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Fabrice Guerrier, who sits down with us to explore topics including the relationship between imagination and the physical world, how imagination can be used to to come up with better solutions to current is…

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Laura Tohe. In this conversation, Laura dives into the role imagination plays in communities, specifically Navajo communities. We also discuss the importance of language in her community, and the impact of …

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Corey Pressman. In this conversation, Corey discusses inquisitive topics including the effects of imagination on mental health and culture, the link between imagination and materialism, and how he uses imag…

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Lisa K. Solomon. In this conversation, Lisa talks about practicing imagination in the classroom, listening to and learning from our peers, and collaboratively building inclusive futures. Lisa Kay Solomon is…

A story about ability and disability, journalism, and creating adaptable communities.

Lafayette Cruise, Azucena Castro & Joey Eschrich

A story by Suyi Davies Okungbowa about children, robots, and bureaucracy.

A story by Phoebe Wagner about reimagining universities as radically open to their communities, and better attuned to addressing local challenges.

with Amos Roddy & Tochi Onyebuchi

A story by Carter Meland about rock music, unexpected connections, and northern Minnesota forests.

ASU News

Pippa Goldschmidt, Paul Cockburn & Joey Eschrich

May 12, 2022

Clark Miller Event – Video

Clark A. Miller Event – video

Clark A. Miller Event – video

with Ken Liu & Izzy Fiacco

A novel multi-platform approach to scaffolding math learning and encouraging student collaboration.

 by The Weight of Light and Cities of Light collaborator Andrew Dana Hudson, in the anthology Phase Change: Imagining Energy Futures (2022)

The global cataclysm of COVID-19, and the quarantines and social distancing that have accompanied the still-unfolding pandemic, has brought enormous changes to the games industry, the ways we play videogames (and physical games) alone and together, and the meaning and content of games old and new.

Speculative fiction writer and sustainability researcher Andrew Dana Hudson discusses his book, five interlocking novelettes exploring the possible realities of our climate future.

Scott Bordow, ASU News

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Bob Beard & Joey Eschrich

A Lecture by N. Katherine Hayles  Presented by ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination and the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict Rescuing the planet from climate chaos

Annual Report 2020-2021 PDF Annual Report 2020-2021 EPUB

Solarpunk Futures podcast

with Randy Smith & Luc Riesbeck

Kamila is the apple of her parents’ eye: a brilliant student with a quick wit who wanted to change the world with science and technology. She had a future —

The Taliban has re-taken Afghanistan. When Marcel chooses to let her disabled brother leave the country ahead of her, she has no idea if she will ever see her family

Andre left his country after University when one of his film projects was banned by the government and they persecuted and threatened to jail him. He returned secretly to save

Carlos is just like any other young man in his twenties: he wants a chance to make his own way in the world, and define himself on his own terms.

Gladys loved her life on the farm: the big open skies, the stars, the chance to see wildlife before it disappeared. And she loved raising her children there, even though

Notes for the podcast

Smithsonian

Notes for the podcast

Notes for the Podcast

Notes for the Podcast

Notes for the Podcast

In this episode of the Imagination Desk, we sat down with ASU futurist in residence Brian David Johnson. In this chat, we talk with Brian about his work on artificial intelligence and introduce his new podcast called Sci-Fi House Presents Imagining Int…

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow presents an opportunity for decisive global action amidst escalating climate chaos. Now, more than ever, we need narratives of positive climate futures

Lena Nguyen, Dagmar Van Engen & Joey Eschrich

Today’s escalating climate chaos is intensified by global threats to democracy, violent backlashes to migration, and horrific biodiversity loss. Furthermore, environmental degradation is exacerbating existing inequalities, with poor and marginalized

If we hope to achieve the global will and cooperation needed to meet the challenges of the climate crisis, we need stories of hope and transformation, not just disaster and

By Steve Goldstein

Can we reimagine our relationship with nature and protect the future? How can we marshal our collective imagination to accelerate global transformations and move towards a sustainable way of life?

Join the Center for Science and the Imagination, the Journal of Science Policy & Governance (JSPG), and the UK Science and Innovation Network for a workshop that brings together innovative

Create a digital postcard from the future, with concept art by João Queiroz.

When we imagine our climate future, it’s easy to drift towards catastrophe, especially in view of this summer’s shocking examples of climate chaos—from floods and sinkholes to heat domes and

with Zoyander Street & Rachel Carr

Damien P. Williams, Nilanjana Bhattacharjya & Joey Eschrich

Our fellows are exploring how imagination can motivate transformative change.

Learn more about their projects >>>

Imagination is a fundamental human capacity, practiced by individuals, communities, and cultures the world over. The act of imagination, creating mental images and simulations beyond our direct, physical experience, is

with Lisa Yin Han & Hilairy Hartnett

Moscow-Pullman Daily News (Idaho)

Tom Maxedon Word podcast, KJZZ 91.5 public radio

Lisa Yin Han, Jonathon Keats & Ruth Wylie

How Do You Like It So Far? podcast

A collection of science fiction stories, art, and essays exploring how the transition to solar energy will transform cities; catalyze revolutions in politics, governance, and culture; and create diverse futures for human communities.

Get the book

A collection of short stories by writers from around the world, exploring the climate crisis and how human responses to it will shape the futures we will inhabit. Featuring winning stories from our 2020 Everything Change Climate Fiction Contest.

Join Claire Vaye Watkins, award-winning author of the climate fiction novel Gold Fame Citrus and the short fiction collection Battleborn, for a virtual reading and a conversation about climate writing.

Our Science Fiction TV Dinner series is going virtual for 2020-2021, to help keep our community safe during the pandemic. We’re shifting the format slightly, presenting Science Fiction TV Small

Andrew Liptak, Tor.com

Justin Spangenthal, The State Press

The Center for Science and the Imagination invites applications for its new Applied Imagination Fellowship. The fellowship is inspired by our belief that imagination is a crucial but often overlooked resource that serves as the ignition system for empathy, anticipation, and resilience. Learn more

Pauline Holdsworth, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

A collection of science fiction stories, art, and essays exploring how the transition to solar energy will transform cities; catalyze revolutions in politics, governance, and culture; and create diverse futures for human communities.

Katie Bouman is an assistant professor of computing and mathematical sciences, electrical engineering, and astronomy at Caltech in Pasadena, California. In this episode, we talk about scientific collaboration, imagination, and Katie’s work on the Event…

Emma Kostopolus, Malik Toms, and Joey Eschrich

Annual Report 2019/20 PDF Annual Report 2019/20 EPUB

Our Science Fiction TV Dinner series is going virtual for 2020-2021, to help keep our community safe during the pandemic. We’re shifting the format slightly, presenting Science Fiction TV Small

with Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay & Arkady Martine

Moya Bailey is a Black queer feminist scholar, writer, and activist. She is the co-author of #HashtagActivism: Networks of Race and Gender Justice and has a new book Misogynoir Transformed: Black Women’s Digital Resistance coming out May 2021. In this …

Our Science Fiction TV Dinner series is going virtual for 2020-2021, to help keep our community safe during the pandemic. We’re shifting the format slightly, presenting Science Fiction TV Small

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Katherine Buse and Joey Eschrich

with Deji Bryce Olukotun

We often cling to the idea that artificially intelligent systems are neutral arbiters, despite knowing that these systems can only be as good as the parameters and data sets that

with Jessica L. Conditt & Tochi Onyebuchi

Join Ed Finn, associate professor and director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, as he explains why imagination is the ignition system for all

Our Science Fiction TV Dinner series is going virtual for 2020-2021, to help keep our community safe during the pandemic. We’re shifting the format slightly, presenting Science Fiction TV Small

Troy L. Wiggins, Kate Greene & Joey Eschrich

with Katherine Buse & Steven Desch

Mawasi, A., Ahmed, I., Walker, E., Wang, S., Marasli, Z., Whitehurst, A., & Wylie, R.
International Conference on the Learning Sciences. 

with Izzy Fiacco & Malik Toms

A conversation about art that visualizes the future, creative expression in moments of crisis, and how art can be a path into fictional worlds.

Indrapramit Das, Jessie Rack & Joey Eschrich

video lecture at University of Oklahoma, by Clark A. Miller, coeditor of The Weight of Light and Cities of Light

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Jonathan Alexander. Jonathan is Professor of English and Informatics at The University of California, Irvine and author of books such as Writing Youth: Young Adult Fiction as Literacy Sponsorship (2016) and…

What would our world look like if we actually respected and lived within planetary boundaries? We’re excited to announce our third global climate fiction short story contest. Learn more…

Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Torie Bosch & Joey Eschrich

This episode of The Imagination Desk features the band YACHT or Young Americans Challenging High Technology. We spoke with them about their new album Chain Tripping and it’s use of machine learning.

This episode of The Imagination Desk features science fiction heavy-weight Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Water Knife and Shipbreaker. We caught up with him in this bonus episode to discuss the changes in his writing process as well as his latest proj…

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Maureen McHugh. Maureen is an author and narrative designer who has worked on some of the biggest transmedia stories and alternate reality games (ARGs) in the history of the medium including The Beast for S…

This episode of The Imagination Desk features Matt Derby. Matt is a writer and designer who works on innovative media projects where these two disciplines meet. Matt is a designer at the game studio Harmonix, the co-writer of the serialized fiction pod…

Our first interview for The Imagination Desk features Anne Cofell Saunders. Anne is an award-winning TV writer and producer, who has worked on some of the most popular genre shows of the past decade including Battlestar Galactica, Chuck, Smallville, an…

A classic work of military science fiction TV, Stargate SG-1 plunges humans into a new cosmology shaped by stargates: devices that create wormholes, enabling near-instantaneous travel across vast distances of

A collection of recommended media to experience more Black Futures.

Join us to celebrate the launch of Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow, a new anthology of science fiction from Future Tense, with France Córdova, director of the National Science

Upcoming book project

By Marcy Kelly

Join us at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice to celebrate the launch of Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow, a new anthology of science fiction from Future Tense,

By Chinelo Onwualu

Join us to celebrate the launch of Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow, a new anthology of science fiction from Future Tense, with award-winning fiction authors Annalee Newitz, Meg Elison,

Join us to celebrate the launch of Future Tense Fiction: Stories of Tomorrow, a new anthology of science fiction from Future Tense, with award-winning fiction authors Paolo Bacigalupi and Maureen

A true 1980s pop-culture oddity, Max Headroom is a cyberpunk satire of the 21st century where the world is controlled by a cabal of shadowy, ruthless TV networks (example: “off”

The first Trek series born in the age of Prestige TV, Star Trek: Discovery presents a gritty, stubbornly weird, and ethically challenging take on Trek‘s spacefaring, post-scarcity future. Discovery asks

by Torie Bosch, SLATE

Kirkus Reviews

By Renee Anderson Lawfare

By E. Lily Yu

An anthology of mind-bending science fiction short stories by some of the top authors in the field, drawn from our Future Tense Fiction project. How will living with scientific upheaval and technological transformation change the world–and us?

 Peter Nagy,  Ruth Wylie, Joey Eschrich, Ed Finn Science and Engineering Ethics

Patrick McGurrin

Locus Magazine

By Chen Qiufan

Ahmed, I., Girotto, V., Mawasi, A., Whitehurst, A., Wylie, R., & Walker, E.
International Conference on the Learning Sciences

Ahmed, I., Mawasi, A., Wang, S., Wylie, R., Bergner, Y., Whitehurst, A., & Walker, E
International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education

Publishers Weekly

by Athena Aktipis and Dave Lundberg-Kenrick, Zombified Podcast

by Elizabeth Bear

This biography of a dawn traces one particular sunrise through poetry, photography, and lived experience as it played out from four different vantage points on the San Francisco Peaks. This collection is inspired by James Turrell’s land art project at Roden Crater in Northern Arizona.

By Indrapramit Das

by Amy Brady, Literary Hub

by Chelsea Hofmann, The State Press

by Nick Hedges, The State Press

by Endia Fontanez, The State Press

by Sarah Outterson-Murphy Morningside Center

The Scout Report (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

by Cat Rambo, Motherboard – VICE

by Louisa Hall

by Joey Eschrich, ASU Now

Solar Cascade

by Brooke Ruth and Mark Sauer, KPBS (San Diego)

Gr8estIdeaEver

Solarpunks.net

ASU Science & Imagination

Ride an ornithopter, interact with robot marionettes and explore the theme of “Invention!,” celebrating human inventiveness on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.

By Nosipho Dumisa

by Jason Sheehan, NPR Books

by Zoe Sayler, Salon.com

by Gautham Shenoy, Factor Daily

Patrick McGurrin

by Zoe Sayler, Canada’s National Observer

by Andrew Hageman, Los Angeles Review of Books

A collection of science fiction stories, art, and essays exploring human futures powered by solar energy, with an upbeat, solarpunk twist. What will it be like to live in the photon societies of tomorrow? How will a transition to clean, plentiful energy transform our values, markets, and politics?

Emerge is a festival of art, science, and technology devoted to creative imagination and experiences of tomorrow. Ride an ornithopter, interact with robot marionettes and explore the theme of “Invention!,”

by Zoe Sayler, Grist

By Zoe Sayler Grist

by Joey Eschrich, ASU Now

by Amy Brady,  Chicago Review of Books

Over the past 42 years, the Star Wars universe has grown beyond galaxy-spanning battles between an evil empire and acrobatic warrior monks to encompass a multitude of stories about diversity, resilience, courage,

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019, 6:00PM | Ventana Ballroom, Memorial Union In this year’s annual Imagination and Climate Futures Lecture, Omar El Akkad talks about how he came to write his debut novel, American War – the events that inspired it, the references buried throughout the text and the places he visited to research the book.

by Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post

A collection of short stories by an international group of authors, drawn from our 2018 Everything Change Climate Fiction Contest, plus a foreword by our lead judge, Kim Stanley Robinson.

Andrew Dana Hudson

by Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

by Ken Liu

by Joey Eschrich and Angie Dell, iMPACT magazine

by Annalee Newitz

In just a few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has shifted from the stuff of futuristic dreams to a ubiquitous part of our daily lives. In a moment of dizzying change,

By Mark Stasenko

by Javier Yanes, BBVA OpenMind

by Ed Finn The New York Times

“Science fiction stories exert a powerful influence on how we think about technology and the future. But if we spend all of our time looking over our shoulders for killer robots, that means we are not looking ahead to discern the outcomes we might actually want.”

Joey Eschrich

Andrew Dana Hudson

By Lee Konstantinou

by Jennifer Schuessler The New York Times

By Hannu Rajaniemi

by Ed Finn and Andrew Maynard The Conversation

By Deji Bryce Olukotun

Buy tickets The Jeffery Meyer conducts the ASU Chamber Orchestra as they embark on a musical exploration of Frankenstein themes as part of the ASU Frankenstein Bicentennial Project. Concerts at

Buy Tickets Frankenstein! Part of the ASU Frankenstein Bicentennial Project ASU Chamber Orchestra Jeffery Meyer, Conductor David Schildkret, Chansonnier The ASU Chamber Orchestra embarks on a musical exploration of Frankenstein

The BBC’s Torchwood, a spin-off of Doctor Who, centers on a team of investigators working in secret, “outside the government, beyond the police,” to protect Earth from extraterrestrial and supernatural

What are the challenges of sustaining a human society in space? How should we govern ourselves and endure political crises in an environment dangerously starved of resources? More importantly, how

Jessie Rack

ASU Science & Imagination

By Maureen McHugh

In this novella, award-winning science fiction and fantasy author Elizabeth Bear and artist Melissa Gay imagine a near future informed by visceral VR simulations to catalyze positive change.

By Carmen Maria Machado

By Ed Finn MIT Technology Review

A collaborative reading experiment with Mary Shelley’s classic novel.

By Cory Doctorow Boing Boing

By Maria Popova Brain Pickings

Massive Science

By Meg Elison
A new short story from the author of the award-winning The Book of the Unnamed Midwife.

Maria Haskins
Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog

People have fantasized for ages about what it would be like to live in space. If Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos achieve their goals with Space X and Blue Origin,

Gardner Dozois
Locus Magazine

A collection that brings together science fiction, history, visual art, and exploration, inspired by the literary “dare” that would give birth to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein amidst the aftermath of a massive volcanic eruption. Named one of the top art books of 2019 by the New York Times.

A new short story from science-fiction writer and futurist Madeline Ashby.

Buy Tickets This summer, FilmBar and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination are going back to the future. This second installment of The History of the Future

Buy Tickets This summer, FilmBar and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination are going back to the future. This second installment of The History of the Future

Buy Tickets This summer, FilmBar and Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination are going back to the future. This second installment of The History of the Future

What would it be like to actually dwell in space? What challenges might bedevil us as we tried to live well in such a vast and inhospitable place? What opportunities

Fox 10 News

Jessie Rack

AZFamily.com

Mary Beth Faller ASU Now

Bioethical Inquiry
Peter Nagy, Ruth Wylie, Joey Eschrich and Ed Finn

Corey S. Pressman

Classic cartoons like The Jetsons, Huckleberry Hound, and Beany and Cecil powerfully shape our vision of the world around us, including the way that we understand science and technology. These series have enduring power

Emerge will transform ASU’s Galvin Playhouse into a rich, immersive experience grounded in space-science research and the inspirational vision of our Writer-at-Large, Kim Stanley Robinson. Come see, hear, touch and

By Jessie Rack “Coyote” by Jitze Couperus, licensed under CC BY 2.0 What do you really know about coyotes? Maybe you’ve heard the official line about the economic consequences of coyotes

A new short story by the author of Marvel’s Black Panther: Long Live the King, Nnedi Okorafor.

By Michael Bennett
Slate – Future Tense

Patrick McGurrin

Ira Flatow and Christie Taylor
Science Friday

Steve Goldstein, Sarah Ventre
KJZZ

Jon Turney
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

A science-based comic book for 5th through 8th grade students. Created by award-winning comics authors and advised by ASU sustainability scholar Dr. Paul Hirt, this original story envisions the near future of Arizona’s energy systems.

Westworld examines timeless dilemmas about free will, individual identity, and the fundamental altruism or savagery of human nature through the lens of artificial intelligence and robotics. Building on motifs from a

Erin Blakemore
Washington Post

In 1931 and 1935, respectively, James Whale, classical Hollywood’s most openly gay filmmaker, directed Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein, the two most famous, admired, imitated, and parodied films based upon elements of Mary

A new short story from the author of the Nebula Award–winning All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders.

BoingBoing

Horizon Arizona PBS

Marcelo Gleiser NPR – 13.7 Cosmos and Culture

Science Friday

The Good Wife is a legal drama with salacious political overtones and an unusually complex and thought-provoking approach to emerging technology and the law—in 2013, Wired magazine called it “the

Stubbornness may be the defining characteristic of the moment we’re in. People seem increasingly reluctant to listen to other points of view or deviate from their tribe. So how can

Ed Finn and David H. Guston The Wall Street Journal

New research-based collection features narratives by top science fiction authors, essays by experts on future possibilities for exploring Mars, Asteroids, Low Earth Orbit, and Exoplanets.

Richard Holmes
The New York Review of Books

By Joey Eschrich and Ed Finn
Future Tense – Slate

Bruce Sterling
Wired – Beyond the Beyond

Why should we go to space? Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities takes on the challenge of imagining new stories at the intersection of public and private—narratives that use the economic and social history of exploration, as well as current technical and scientific research, to inform scenarios for the future of the “new space” era.

by Xavier Harding Mic

A collection of essays by scholars, journalists, scientists, and policy experts, taking the bicentenary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as an occasion to explore issues of scientific creativity and responsibility.

Joss Whedon’s cult-classic series Buffy the Vampire Slayer continues to fascinate feminists, genre aficionados, and those of us who are hopelessly nostalgic for the late 1990s. Join us for a special Halloween

Ed Finn
Aeon

Steve Goldstein
KJZZ 91.5

Ed Finn
Slate – Future Tense

Jeanne Dietsch

Drawn Futures: Arizona 2045 is a science-based comic book for 5th through 8th grade students. Created by award-winning comics authors and advised by ASU sustainability scholar Dr. Paul Hirt, this original story envisions the near future of Arizona’s energy systems.
Learn more…

Fringe is a police procedural tailored for a conspiracy-addled culture: a fever dream of near-future biotechnology research, Timothy Leary-esque 1960s counterculture, and the seemingly ineluctable creep of corporate governance. Created by

A collection of science fiction, art, and speculative timelines exploring the near future of the stratosphere. From Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey to The Martian, great science fiction stories have shaped how we think about voyages into deep space—but what gripping confrontations and adventures might unfold in near space, above the clouds?

Ulises I is an art mission to space by the Colectivo Espacial Mexicano. This is a personal journal, photographic record, and collection of essays documenting the mission, by Juan José Díaz Infante and other collaborators. Note: This is a beta version of the Ulises I book.

ASU Science & Imagination

Get tickets Frankenstein! Beyond green skin and neck bolts, what else comes to mind? Environmental degradation? The technological singularity? Vicious high school cliques? FilmBar and Arizona State University’s Center for

Forget Alexa – here’s an artificial intelligence you can truly fall for. Join us Wednesday, July 19 at FilmBar Phoenix for Spike Jonze’s visionary “Her,” part of our Unexpected Frankensteins

Cory talks about his new novel Walkaway and his essay in the book Frankenstein: Annotated for Scientists, Engineers, and Creators of All Kinds, a new critical edition edited by the leaders of ASU’s Frankenstein Bicentennial Project.

Shang Wang, Erin Walker, Ruth Wylie International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education Nominated for Best Paper

Corey S. Pressman

Erin Walker, Ruth Wylie, Andreea Danielescu, James P. Rodriguez III, Ed Finn End-User Considerations in Educational Technology Design, IGI Global

This edition of Frankenstein pairs the original 1818 version of the manuscript with annotations and essays by leading scholars exploring the social and ethical aspects of scientific creativity raised by this remarkable story. The result is a unique and accessible edition of one of the most thought-provoking and influential novels ever written.

Robert Weisberg

Patrick McGurrin

Corey S. Pressman

The MIT Press Podcast

RSVP here >> Algorithms tell us what to read, where to go, and whom to date…but do we really understand them? It’s easy to think of algorithms as magical beings,

More about this event >> Michael Bennett speaks at this symposium at the University of Tennessee.

Get tickets here >> Two hundred years after its creation,  Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is still alive and well, continuing to shape how we imagine science and its

Future Out Loud Podcast

“She’d seen the coat before in this moment, exiting this train, here. Every face in the crowd looked somehow familiar.” Read the full story on Slate.com

In this book, Ed Finn considers how the algorithm—in practical terms, “a method for solving a problem”—has its roots not only in mathematical logic but also in cybernetics, philosophy, and magical thinking.

The founding director of the Center for Science and the Imagination at ASU presents his latest book, explaining the ties that connect algorithms and computing to human culture–past and present.

Peter Nagy, Ruth Wylie, Joey Eschrich, Ed Finn Science and Engineering Ethics Download article

The Norwegian thriller Occupied masterfully blends the Machiavellian ruthlessness and icy visual style of House of Cards with the existential threat of climate change. Masterminded by world-renowned crime novelist Jo

EMERGE is an annual transmedia art, science and technology festival designed to engage diverse publics in the creative exploration of our possible futures. The festival’s 2017 theme is Frankenstein, a 200-year old

When we think of The X-Files, we think of sprawling government conspiracies, eerie UFO sightings, cigarette-smoking men, and the compelling dynamic between the smoldering, occasionally unhinged Fox Mulder and the doggedly

Why: Mark Siegel is an award-winning illustrator, New York Times bestselling author and the founder and editorial director of First Second Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers that creates graphic novels

KJZZ – The Show

Joey Eschrich
Slate – Future Tense

Buy tickets today! Frankenstein! Beyond green skin and neck bolts, what else comes to mind? Environmental degradation? The technological singularity? Vicious high school cliques? Each month throughout 2017, we’re partnering

Black Mirror brings the breathtaking aesthetics, dystopian fervor, bracing social commentary, and eerie prescience of The Twilight Zone to the age of iPhones, Snapchat, and Snowden. The first season episode

In a moment of cyber-paranoia and cyber-crisis, there’s never been a cyber-time more cyber-appropriate for the overheated (and tragically, recently canceled) cyber-procedural, CSI: Cyber. Cybersecurity has never been more critical

Corey S. Pressman

Patrick McGurrin

Cody Staats

View at Medium.com

Features short stories from our 2016 Climate Fiction Short Story Contest along with a foreword by science fiction legend and contest judge Kim Stanley Robinson, and an interview with renowned climate fiction author Paolo Bacigalupi.

By Emma Greguska, ASU Now

Book features authors from six different countries alongside science fiction luminaries Paolo Bacigalupi, Kim Stanley Robinson

Patrick McGurrin

Exhibit is on display from August 30 through December 10, 2016 No work of literature has done more to shape the way people imagine science and its moral consequences than

Alex Halavais

By Sarah Ventre, KJZZ 91.5 FM

Corey S. Pressman

Sherryl Vint

In April 2016 CSI launched a new experiment with the Future Tense Channel at Slate: a regular writing series featuring original science fiction stories by well-known authors. We launched Future

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a modern myth; a 200-year-old science-fiction story with themes of human creativity, societal responsibility and scientific ethics. Two centuries later, these themes continue to resonate in our technological age.  As

Two centuries ago, on a dare to tell the best scary story, 19-year-old Mary Shelley imagined an idea that became the basis for Frankenstein. Mary’s original concept became the novel that arguably kick-started the genres of science fiction and Gothic horror, but also provided an enduring myth that shapes how our society continues to grapple with creativity, science, technology, and their consequences. Two hundred years later, inspired by that classic dare, CSI launched a series of creative challenges inspiring amateur and professional writers to reflect on questions of science, ethics, creativity, and responsibility.

September 8, 2016 is the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek universe. Celebrate with us by taking a journey to the final frontier, where Captain Picard and his stouthearted crew

By Joseph Horton, Ploughshares

Bob Beard

Corey S. Pressman

Peter Nagy

Samuel Arbesman

SSP 2016 Conference, Vancouver

By Ed Finn, CNN Opinion

By Megan K. Halpern, Jathan Sadowski, Joey Eschrich, Ed Finn, and David H. Guston Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society

Our communications and public engagement strategist Bob Beard visited Phoenix’s NBC affiliate, 12 News, to discuss Star Wars Day and why science fiction fandom matters. Watch now…

What will sport look like in 2040? What would you like it to be? How can we steer the development of “sport” to answer our cravings for fun, adrenalin, competition and collaboration so common in our species?

At the festival, meet CAIL, the Cheering Artificial Intelligence Leader, designed by Director of Research and Collaboration for Emerge, Hannah Star Rogers, with Center for Science and Imagination staff Joey

By Natalie Zutter, Tor.com

By Drew Turney, Cosmos Magazine

By Martha Neil, American Bar Association Journal

“The girl, the robot … this thing—I’d seen her before, all right. I’d seen her in technology news stories about advanced learning node networks…”

Listen to our Futurist in Residence Brian David Johnson on The Gist podcast with the inimitable Mike Pesca!

By Tina Underwood, Furman University News

This summer we’re proud to present a film series examining gripping cinematic visions of the future emanating from different moments in recent history. Join us at FilmBar in Downtown Phoenix

This summer we’re proud to present a film series examining gripping cinematic visions of the future emanating from different moments in recent history. Join us at FilmBar in Downtown Phoenix

This summer we’re proud to present a film series examining gripping cinematic visions of the future emanating from different moments in recent history. Join us at FilmBar in Downtown Phoenix

This summer we’re proud to present a film series examining gripping cinematic visions of the future emanating from different moments in recent history. Join us at FilmBar in Downtown Phoenix

By Michael G. Bennett, IEEE Computer

Michael G Bennett

Corey S. Pressman

A collection of research-based “fiction with footnotes” short stories about environmental futures, created by students in Dr. Michele Speitz’s course “Slow Catastrophes, Speculative Futures, Science & Imagintion” at Furman University in South Carolina.

Jonathon Keats

Joey Eschrich

Bob Beard

Corey S. Pressman

By Liz Massey and Brian David Johnson, ASU Magazine

By David Brancaccio, Katie Long, and Brian David Johnson, Marketplace

When technologists describe their hotshot new system for trading stocks or driving cars, the algorithm at its heart always seems to emerge from a magical realm of Spock-like rationality and mathematical perfection. Algorithms can save lives or make money, the argument goes, because they are built on the foundations of mathematics: logical rigor, conceptual clarity, and utter consistency. Math is perfect, right? And algorithms are made out of math.

What happens after the zombie apocalypse ends? We’ve managed to survive and fend off the ravening hordes, but how do we rebuild our communities? The award-winning BBC series In the

Corey S. Pressman

Corey S. Pressman

Running alongside Star Trek‘s original series at the dawn of the Space Age, Lost in Space presented a strikingly different vision for the future of human exploration in space. Lost

By Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times – Dot Earth

Corey S. Pressman

By Mark Brodie and Brian David Johnson, KJZZ 91.5 FM

By Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

Renowned futurist, technologist, and author Brian David Johnson, who left his position at the Intel Corporation in January, will be joining Arizona State University as Futurist in Residence for spring 2016 at the Center for Science and the Imagination and as a Professor of Practice in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society.

We spend an awful lot of time now thinking about what algorithms know about us: the ads we see online, the deep archive of our search history, the automated photo-tagging of our families. We don’t spend as much time asking what algorithms want.

By Brittany Michaels, Terre Haute Tribune-Star

From Star Trek to Interstellar, starships have long held a special fascination for science fiction storytellers. The ships function as surrogate Earths, providing safety, sustenance, and a sense of home

By Ed Finn, Computer, IEEE Computer Society 48

Download and read our Annual Report for 2014-2015

Corey S. Pressman

Higher education is obsessed with 3-D printing. Makerspaces and fab labs are sprouting like extruded weeds on college campuses, and everyone from business school deans to librarians are asking how 3-D printing and fabrication can be implemented in teaching.

The Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative at Arizona State University invites writers to submit short stories that explore climate change, science and human futures for its first Climate Fiction Short Story Contest. The submission deadline is Jan. 15, 2016, and contest entry is free. The contest will be judged by science fiction legend Kim Stanley Robinson.

Reception: 4:30 – 5:15pm / Doors Open: 5:15 / TV Dinner: 5:30 Star Trek’s original series remains perhaps our most influential and beloved vision of the future. It continues to

Every sea on Earth is plagued by massive amounts of trash. Refuse in the ocean kills hundreds of thousands of birds and marine mammals per year, and hazardous heavy metals bind to plastic particles and enter our food chain. The Ocean Trash Write-Away contest challenges writers to imagine solutions to this global challenge and write an inspiring short story set in a future where we’ve turned the tide on ocean trash.

In Paolo Bacigalupi’s most recent science fiction novel, The Water Knife, Phoenix is dried up and California and Nevada are not too far behind. The millions of people who rely on the Colorado River to survive are not only thirsty, but fighting for their lives. It’s a compelling story that captures a not-so-distant future. Will Phoenix eventually collapse? Will the river dry up?

Featuring TV’s Small Wonder, futurist Brian David Johnson, and digital humanities scholar Jacqueline Wernimont Small Wonder rewires the classic American sitcom with hilariously awkward circuitry, dropping an adorable humanoid robot,

Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, an anthology of ambitious, technically-grounded science fiction visions of the near future curated by the center, has been honored with an award for Most Significant Futures Work by the Association of Professional Futurists.

Corey S. Pressman

What might a world without oil look like? How will human societies cope with massive changes in the Earth’s climate? How will we adapt to survive the future? And how can storytelling and art — alongside science and technology — help us confront the challenge of climate change?

A short documentary by Nathan Broderick about experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats, the Millennium Camera, installed at the ASU Art Museum, and the Deep Time Photo Lab, an interactive exhibit that debuted at ASU’s Emerge festival in March 2015.

On June 9, 2015, CSI director and Project Hieroglyph co-editor Ed Finn visited the Eight, Arizona PBS show Arizona Horizon to discuss Project Hieroglyph, science fiction, optimism for the future, and the trade paperback edition of Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future.

By Maddie Crum, Huffington Post

By Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

By Dan Piepenbring, The Paris Review

By Shaunacy Ferro, Mental Floss

An interview with Neal Stephenson about his new novel, Seveneves, humanity’s resilience, and more.

In March 2015, Arizona State University’s Emerge presented eleven spellbinding “visitations from the future” – tangible, visceral experiences at the intersection of art and science. Learn more at emerge.asu.edu.

An experimental philosopher’s project to document 100 or even 1,000 years of change with a single photograph.
Joey Eschrich
Slate – Future Tense

A new project by experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats at Arizona State University involves creating simple, incredibly durable pinhole cameras that will slowly create a single image over the course of a century or a millennium.

Boasting two interstate freeways and one of Arizona’s largest shopping malls, the city of Tempe has been selected to represent the evolution of world civilization over the next thousand years.

Radically new visions of the future will be showcased as part of Arizona State University’s Emerge 2015 – a one-day event featuring visionary Jad Abumrad, host of the award-winning show Radiolab, and 10 spellbinding “visitations from the future,” including theatrical performances, improvisation, games, dance and hands-on opportunities to design and build the future.

Climate fiction, or “cli fi,” can be a dreary genre. Storytellers like to make a grim business of climate change, populating their narratives with a humorless onslaught of death, destruction, drowned monuments, and starving children. Margaret Atwood is the conspicuous exception, somehow managing to tackle the subject, including these familiar elements, with deadpan wit and an irreverent playfulness, making it both more interesting and believable. The flood is coming, her MaddAddam trilogy promises, but there is hope.

Set in the 24th century and produced in the 1990s, Star Trek: Voyager reflects upon and updates Star Trek‘s hopeful vision for an intergalactic human future, its philosophical explorations, and

A short comic book about the challenge of human trafficking, and how we might address this crisis. Created in collaboration with the World Bank’s Evoke project.

Technologists and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer aficionados Astrid Atkinson and Bridget Kromhout answer CSI’s 5 Burning Questions at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

You just don’t see many illuminated manuscripts these days. There’s a good reason why: They take a long time to make. I learned this recently when I set out to commission a thoroughly modern illuminated manuscript: not a religious text, but an interview with theoretical physicist and cosmologist Paul Davies, a professor at Arizona State University and the author of books like How to Build a Time Machine.

Dawn Gilpin, associate professor of public relations and social media at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, answers CSI’s 5 Burning Questions.

Event Date: October 8, 2014 Location: Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, ASU Episode: “Intervention” (Season 5) Speakers: Bridget Kromhout, tech operations engineer; Astrid Atkinson, senior engineering manager, Google; Dawn Gilpin, associate professor of public relations and social media, ASU; Nina Miller, design strategist, Center for Science and the Imagination

Event Date: September 30, 2014 Location: Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Episode: “Cane and Able” (Season 3) Speakers: Dr. Cathy Seiler, scientific liaison at ASU’s Biodesign Institute; Dr. Kenneth S. Ramos, associate vice president of precision health services and professor of medicine at the Arizona Health Sciences Center of the University of Arizona; Joey Eschrich, editor and program manager, Center for Science and the Imagination

By Iwan Rhys Morus, Aeon Magazine

By Paul Di Filippo, Barnes & Noble Review

This Science Fiction TV Dinner (at lunchtime) is part of the Chandler Science Spectacular, a festival for all ages celebrating and exploring invention. We’ll screen a series of classic Warner

On October 2, 2014, Future Tense and Issues in Science and Technology hosted an event in Washington, DC inspired by Project Hieroglyph.

Launch event for Project Hieroglyph’s first anthology, Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future (HarperCollins, 2014) at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, AZ on October 22, 2014.

Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse imagines a future where neuroscience enables human personalities to be uploaded, reconfigured, and downloaded into brains…or erased entirely. The series wrestles with the ethical implications and technical

Edited by Joel Garreau and Ed Finn
Emerge 2014 Ethics Report

On September 10, 2014, Project Hieroglyph visited Google in Mountain View, California for an event as part of their Talks at Google series.

On October 26, Hieroglyph contributors Cory Doctorow and Neal Stephenson and CSI director Ed Finn appeared at Town Hall Seattle, in an event titled “Reigniting Society’s Ambition with Science Fiction.”

Event date: October 8, 2014 Location: ASU Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication Speakers: Bridget Kromhout, tech operations engineer; Astrid Atkinson, senior engineering manager, Google; Dawn Gilpin, associate professor of public relations and social media, ASU; Nina Miller, design strategist, Center for Science and the Imagination

Event date: September 30, 2014 Location: Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts Episode: “Cane and Able” (Season 3) Speakers: Cathy Seiler, scientific liaison, ASU Biodesign Institute; Kenneth S. Ramos, associate vice president of precision health services, Arizona Health Sciences Center; Joey Eschrich, editor and program manager, Center for Science and the Imagination

By Steve Goldstein, 91.5 KJZZ (Phoenix Public Radio)

By Matthew Snyder, Los Angeles Review of Books

By Paul Voosen, New York Times – International Education

By Paul Voosen, Chronicle of Higher Education

What happened The Center for Science and the Imagination crew hosted a Science Fiction TV Dinner series event at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism centered around an episode of

What happened At this Science Fiction TV Dinner event on September 30 at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts, we screened “Cane and Able,” of the hit medical drama

By Kathryn Cramer, Huffington Post

Slate magazine’s Future Tense channel is running a series of stories inspired by and excerpted from Hieroglyph: Stories and Visions for a Better Future, exploring about the connections between science fiction storytelling, scientific discovery, public policy,

Humankind has lots of great ideas for the future. We need people to carry them out.
Neal Stephenson
Slate – Future Tense

Sci-fi’s warning tales are as important as its optimistic stories.
Ramez Naam
Slate – Future Tense

By Steve Goldstein, 91.5 KJZZ (Phoenix Public Radio)

By Tom Shippey, Wall Street Journal

By Annie Minoff, Science Friday

Science fiction has inspired scientists and political activists, but it should be an inspiration for municipal governments too.
Annalee Newitz
Slate – Future Tense

When I wrote a novel about a Nigerian space program, I didn’t expect it to be so close to the truth.
Deji Bryce Olukotun
Slate – Future Tense

A short story from Hieroglyph, a new science fiction anthology.
Charlie Jane Anders
Slate-Future Tense

What sci-fi gets wrong about income inequality.
Lee Konstantinou
Slate – Future Tense

Joey Eschrich
Robohub

By Ed Finn, Slate/Future Tense

Why gadgets aren’t the coolest part of science fiction.
Joey Eschrich
Slate – Future Tense

A short story from Hieroglyph, a new science fiction anthology.
Elizabeth Bear
Slate – Future Tense

By Zeeya Merali, Nature

Inspired by New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson, an award-winning anthology of stories, set in the near future, from some of today’s leading writers, thinkers, and visionaries that reignites the iconic and optimistic visions of the golden age of science fiction.

By Debbie Siegelbaum, BBC News

By Jekan Thanga, Boing Boing

Technology, identity and vampires.

Our center’s progress for the year 2013-14.

Our Science Fiction TV Dinner series is a launch pad for new conversations about science, technology, art and society. Enjoy dinner from local food trucks, then watch a screening of

This article originally appeared in ASU News. Internationally renowned novelist and environmental activist Margaret Atwood will visit Arizona State University this November to discuss the relationship between art and science,

By Kurt Andersen, Studio 360

The Center for Science and the Imagination is partnering with the World Bank to create a series of stories and artwork to integrate into an online game, EVOKE, designed to get young people in the developing world involved in social innovation and civic engagement.

Arizona State University was selected for a competitive, five-year award of $20 million by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to launch a research partnership, effective June 1, to explore approaches for anticipating and mitigating national security risks associated with climate change.

Co-sponsored by the Arizona Science Center Free Event, Registration Required; Learn more and RSVP at the Arizona Science Center website  Living starships. Super-soldiers. Sentient plants. Intergalactic empires. Wormholes. Animatronic puppets. Join

By Eileen Gunn, Smithsonian Magazine

To the Best of Our Knowledge, Wisconsin Public Radio / Public Radio International

This article originally appeared on ASU News Ed Finn, director of ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination, and an assistant professor in the School of Arts, Media and Engineering and

In this episode, we talk with interspecies jazz musician and philosopher David Rothenberg. David appeared at Arizona State University’s Emerge: Carnival of the Future on March 7, 2014 to perform alongside flying quadcopters and the band There Is Danger. Click here to watch a clip of the performance, titled “Drone Confidential,” and visit Slate’s Future Tense channel to read an article about the process of creating the performance. Check out this transcript of the interview, or watch the video below! https://vimeo.com/91355576

In his 1984 film The Terminator and its sequels, James Cameron imagines a dystopic future in which armies of intelligent robots move with startling suddenness from positions of servility to utter and violent dominance, destroying civilization and driving humankind to the brink of extinction.

This, of course, is pure science fiction. There’s little reason to believe things will unfold that way. First, they would take all our jobs and wreck our economy.

This is the nightmare narrative of our future with robots and artificial intelligence. The utopian version of this tale—one accepted by many powerful people in industry and government—involves a …read more

This item was originally published by ASU News. Three Arizona State University researchers have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to lead a workshop to build a global,

A voice cries out in the desert:

“Know thyself, not thy selfies!”

“Digital media will not save you!”

“The zero is not whole and the one is not The One!”

Technically, we’re not in the desert—we’re in a dusty parking lot in downtown Phoenix. And the voice is not coming from the Prophet Isaiah, but from professor Ron Broglio, whom I’ve ordained as a Minister of the Digital Tabernacle. As people wander into the massive circus tent at Arizona State University’s Emerge: Carnival of the Future, they are greeted by a pair of shifty evangelists preaching the analog Word. (Disclosure: …read more

The good thing about performing music with drones is that they always show up for rehearsal on time. The bad thing is that they might suddenly drop out of the air and onto your head.

I learned all this while putting together a piece called “Drone Confidential” for Arizona State University’s Emerge, a “Carnival of the Future” that was held in Phoenix recently. Emerge is an annual circus of cool new technologies in performance, dedicated to showing how artists and machines can work together to create something awesome. …read more

I recently read about the launches of both an “ultrasecure” mobile phone for protecting privacy and a clip-on camera that takes a picture of everything you do at 30-second intervals. Our cultural relationship with data is more complicated and contradictory than it has ever been, and our debates on the subject almost always center on privacy. But privacy, the notion that only you should be able to control information about yourself, cloaks a deeper tension between information and meaning, between databases and insights.

Check out the discussion that followed the Science Fiction TV Dinner screening of the first episode of The Walking Dead. Adam Chodorow, the Willard H. Pedrick Distinguished Research Scholar at ASU’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, challenges the definitions of life and death in U.S. legislature and questions the applications of tax laws regarding zombies, avatars, and vampires.

Juan José Diaz Infante, the director of the Mexican Space Collective, visited Arizona State University to tell the story of how he brought together a team of artists, scientists and engineers to build a satellite, Ulises I, and launch it into space.

Ed Finn, director of the Center for Science and the Imagination, describes the mission of Project Hieroglyph. Hieroglyph is a platform that unites scientists, engineers, artists and authors to create ambitious, thoughtfully optimistic, scientifically-grounded visions of the near future.

Our friend Thad Trubakoff, an MFA student in Woodworking at ASU and a contributor to our recent Cautions, Dreams and Curiosities anthology, just let us know about a cool new project, which he calls “Gyroscopic Mandala.” Check out the demo video and read Thad’s guest post about the project below. To learn more about ASU and Mandalas, which have been popping up around here a lot recently, visit our Emerge 2014: The Carnival of the Future website: http://emerge.asu.edu.

Emerge is a creative, playful and challenging approach to the future world we want to make.

Humans tell stories; how we tell them changes.  Wonder Dome is a touring performance platform that brings traditional storytelling into the 21st century by inviting audiences of all ages into

When it comes to exploring space, why should scientists and engineers have all the fun? How can we use creative and artistic experiments to better understand our place in the

Join the Center for Science and the Imagination for our first Science Fiction TV Dinner of 2014 with Quantum Leap, an early 1990s classic that blends science fiction, actual science,

Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt, Germany

By Sammy Medina, Fast Company Co. Design

In this episode of 5 Burning Questions, we talk with legendary science fiction author, design critic, editor and journalist Bruce Sterling. Bruce recorded this interview with us during his tenure as CSI’s inaugural Visionary in Residence. Among many other things, Bruce blogs for Wired.com and is the de facto spiritual leader for ASU’s Emerge since its inception in 2012.

Make It So with Nathan Shedroff Interfaces in sci-fi serve a primarily narrative purpose. They’re there to help tell the story of how a character disables the tractor beam, or

By Leo Kelion, BBC

Location: Cottonwood Hall, Room 101/103 Map: http://goo.gl/oHnSRU Blast into the distant future with the Science Fiction TV Dinner series and BBC’s classic science fiction comedy, Red Dwarf! Join us for

This event is presented by ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination and Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. The Science Fiction TV Dinner series has been reanimated for a

Ed Finn joins The Conversation Podcast

Corey S. Pressman

By Nastaran Tavakoli-Far, BBC News

By Mark Piesing, Wired

Download the 2012-13 Annual Report

By Ed Finn, Huffington Post

By Charlie Jane Anders, io9

During Emerge 2013: The Future of Truth this spring, CSI Visionary in Residence Bruce Sterling was hard at work with a team of collaborators at Arizona State University testing the limits of our rapid prototyping and fabrication facilities. The result of this whirlwind of creativity is an original exhibit of 21st century Petroglifs carved into native Arizona rock with laser cutters.

By Ariel Schwartz, Fast Company Co. Design

By Sarah Rothbard This post originally appeared on Zócalo Public Square. Zócalo Public Square is a partnership of the New America Foundation and Arizona State University; Future Tense is a

Celebrate William Shakespeare’s birthday with Doctor Who! Join us for a screening of the episode “The Shakespeare Code” and a conversation about time travel, the Elizabethan era, TARDIS, Time Lords

By Ed Finn, Slate

By Torie Bosch Science panels don’t normally involve a striptease, even a G-rated one. But on Saturday, March 30, Neil deGrasse Tyson took off his shirt to prove a point

Each year at SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX, science fiction author, design critic and CSI Visionary in Residence Bruce Sterling delivers an epic state-of-the-planet rant, challenging the tech industry and

CSI Visionary in Residence and Emerge provocateur Bruce Sterling delivered the closing remarks at the SXSW Interactive festival in Austin, TX last night, and we were proud to see him sporting his

By Adam Sneed Cyborgs have arrived on Earth, but there’s no reason to worry. They’re nothing like the cold machine-men from The Terminator. Cybernetic technologies that integrate with the human

Torie Bosch Slate – Future Tense

This month CSI welcomes science fiction legend Bruce Sterling, our inaugural Visionary in Residence. Bruce is currently hard at work with collaborators from ASU’s Design School, using digitally-controlled laser cutters to inscribe futuristic petroglyphs on native Arizona desert rock.

Room: Cottonwood 101/103 Join us for a screening of the classic Twilight Zone episode “Number 12 Looks Just Like You” and a conversation about biotechnology, ethics and the connections between

Twitter Verses We hear you. We see you. Tell us your story. On Feb. 28 – March 2, you will be part of a larger story. Emerge 2013 Tweet us a fragment of a story. The story must be true. Send as many fragments as you can. Tweet these at #emergeTV

By Ed Finn, Asimov’s Science Fiction

By Ed Finn It’s 2013, people—we are living in the future. Since the news is still awash with problems we created for ourselves decades or centuries ago (the permanent fiscal crisis, gun control, the political powder-keg that is the Middle East), it may have escaped your notice that today is also National Science Fiction Day.

Join Micah Lande and Angela Sodemann of the College of Technology and Innovation to watch and discuss the 2007 version of The Bionic Woman, science fiction, cyborgs, design and the

Join Gregg Pascal Zachary and Retha Hill of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and Ed Finn of the Center for Science and the Imagination to watch and discuss The X-Files, science fiction and the search for truth.

Science Fiction TV Series: The Jetsons Tuesday, November 27, 6:00 – 7:30 pm Memorial Union 242 (La Paz Room), ASU Tempe campus RSVP at http://asujetsons.eventbrite.com Since 1962, The Jetsons has

One of our Hieroglyph collaborations.

By Eoghan Macguire, CNN

By George Dvorsky, i09

By Jim Giles, New Scientist