Science fiction often concerns itself with grand technological systems and nifty scientific innovations in future worlds far from our own. But speculative fiction can be a full-service “laboratory of the mind”—as useful for imagining alternate social, political, and community structures as it is new gadgets and their time warps. Social science gives us a lens to understand whether speculated futures are aspirational or ominous, and to determine the values and visions we want to prioritize.
In this conversation presented by Future Tense and Issues in Science and Technology, editors of the new anthology We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope and guests will discuss the role of social science in science fiction and how social scientists, advocates, and policy makers can use fiction to blueprint the futures they want to work toward.
Panelists
Karen Lord, sociologist, speculative fiction author, and co-editor of We Will Rise Again
Annalee Newitz, science journalist, speculative fiction author, and co-editor of We Will Rise Again
Malka Older, humanitarian aid worker, speculative fiction author, and co-editor of We Will Rise Again
Craig Calhoun, University Professor of Social Sciences, Arizona State University and author of The Roots of Radicalism: Tradition, the Public Sphere, and Early Nineteenth-Century Social Movements
Ed Finn (moderator), founding director, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University, and academic director of Future Tense