Science Fiction and Foresight: A Partnership for the Future

Fiction provides a medium to guide, inspire, predict, and warn about the future, aiming to drive potential actions in the present. Science Fiction should be treated as a significant component of Futures Studies, helping to overcome the prejudice that futurists avoid it for fear of being stigmatized. It is evident that it is through speculation that science makes discoveries. One may mock the naivety of Science Fiction, but its authors invented, experimented with, and developed most of the procedures used by futurists: extrapolation, exaggeration of an element, or reasoning by the absurd. This means that Science Fiction produces a phenomenon of inspiration that is useful when generating future services and products. Science Fiction is much closer to Foresight than to futurology; the main difference is that Foresight presents several scenarios, while in Science Fiction there is only one. However, it is in the multiplicity of narratives that a multiple view of the future is found. Science Fiction asks questions like, 'If such a thing happens, what then?', or 'Is this good or bad?'. It is a futuristic project that fits into the collective imagination. Science Fiction and Foresight are two half-sisters who share a father: the desire to discover the future, and two somewhat distant cousins as mothers: imagination and method. Perhaps it is time for a reconciliation that allows both sisters to take their place and console each other in the passionate and necessary search for this chimera that is the control of the future. The relationship between Science Fiction and Futures Studies is not new. In the 1970s-1980s, Dennis Livingston reviewed several Science Fiction novels, highlighting their contributions to the field. Since the 1960s, Science Fiction authors have been in dialogue with defense planners, businessmen, and sociologists to try to predict the future. There are many examples of people who have permanently crossed between the realms of Science Fiction and Foresight with positive results, influencing others, such as H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke. Science Fiction speculates about the possibilities of the future and forces the reader to think along with the writer. They are a perfect complement between imagination and method, as there is a phenomenon of hybridization between them. In this sense, there is a two-way pollination between Foresight and Science Fiction: writers feed on current trends, while engineers and scientists feed on the uses and evolutions given to these trends in fiction books and movies to later create real products and services. Numerous future writers have explored both worlds, drawing ideas from both sides, thus generating cross-fertilization. Science Fiction and Foresight can work together to imagine alternative worlds and warn of crises and black swans that may arise in the future. Furthermore, it gives the narrative of scenarios a sensual and emotional side that cannot be obtained through quantitative models or probabilities. In this sense, public entities and private companies are increasingly asking themselves whether to use fiction for Foresight. For example, the French army has joined companies that hire Science Fiction writers to anticipate future wars through a unit called Red Team. Similarly, companies hire Science Fiction writers to help them anticipate the effects of climate change on their businesses. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Apple have connected their developers and research departments with Science Fiction writers. This is much more than storytelling; it is an exercise in imagination, critical thinking, testing, scenario building, ethical evaluation, and planning. Science Fiction allows personifying, imagining, and symbolizing the future. The narratives generated by Science Fiction provide creative inputs, details, alerts, reflection, criticism, and involvement. There are also examples of fictional films that have used techniques from the world of Futures Studies and have prospectivists as part of the world-building process, such as in 'Minority Report'. Interestingly, there are some misunderstandings and disagreements in this family. The larger one, fiction, shows deference to the smaller one, which, upon arrival, tries to appear well-educated and serious, ignoring or despising its kin. Some argue that Foresight, jealous of the other's seduction, highlights its own virtue through the quality of education the method has given it. This pollination between Science Fiction and Foresight can be seen in several books and films, such as Stapledon's 'Last and First Men' and 'Starmaker', where several methodological concepts used in Foresight can be found, demonstrating the interconnection between Science Fiction and Futures Studies. The designers of the iPhone and Kindle have stated that they were inspired by Science Fiction stories. Similarly, Boeing, Nike, Ford, and Intel are hiring people and organizations that create prototypes or future projections. Faced with this, should Science Fiction writers send their drafts to the patent office or to their publishers? While they can be seen as two different ways of exploring the future, both aim to imagine what could happen to then establish possible solutions to avoid total dystopia or to lead humanity towards a desired future. The solution is not to choose.