We live surrounded by prototypes. Every app, every civic dashboard, every conversational agent is a fragment of a larger narrative about who we are willing to become. Science fiction has always been the genre that stitches those fragments together. Sci-fi transforms prototypes into possibilities. When readers tell me the near-future novel The Interim feels eerily plausible, it is because the AI governance dystopia set in 2045 borrows from lived research—and then dares to ask whether humanity can reclaim agency before it's "perfected to death."
Why we still need sci-fi stories
The technologies racing out of labs rarely pause for consent. Science fiction can. It allows us to interrogate timelines before they harden into policy. Sci-fi introduces characters who feel the weight of automated choices and ask whether we might design another way. Science fiction essays like Governing the Invisible tackle the policy architecture. Sci-fi stories illuminate the lived experience.
When I speak with engineers, I hear the same refrain: we need shared language. Science fiction supplies it. Terms such as "synthetic empathy" or "procedural justice" became rallying cries among early readers of my sci-fi work. Those phrases now circulate in a wider audience. Sci-fi narrative gives the future a vocabulary.
Willing futures into existence
The idea of "willed worlds" comes from science fiction traditions where storytelling is an act of collective intention. When communities imagine a future together, they practice the muscle memory required to build it. That is why I pair each sci-fi novel release with public workshops. We map the sociotechnical systems in the science fiction book and then co-create alternate endings. Participants leave not just with opinions, but with action plans.
The design practices I outline in the sci-fi essay Designing Humane Automation translate these workshops into product roadmaps. By inviting science fiction readers and users to become co-authors, we prove that humane technology is not a fantasy-it is a collaboration.
Sci-Fi narrative strategies for builders and readers
If you are an engineer, write the user story that keeps you up at night. If you are a policymaker, commission science fiction sprints that model the trade-offs your legislation must confront. If you are a sci-fi reader, share the chapters that made you feel seen. Culture shifts when science fiction stories travel.
Try these practices:
- Host sci-fi speculative salons. Gather cross-disciplinary peers to discuss a chapter from the science fiction novel The Interim and brainstorm how its dilemmas surface in your domain.
- Pair sci-fi reading lists with prototypes. For every technical roadmap, include science fiction that explores its second-order effects.
- Document narrative commitments. Write down the futures your team refuses to build. Hold yourself accountable when a product drifts toward them.
The science fiction stories we tell signal the futures we deserve. By crafting sci-fi narratives that honor human dignity, we create a gravitational pull toward technologies that do the same. That is the deeper mission of the novel The Interim and the entire AI Futures Series science fiction books.
Keep reading sci-fi, keep prototyping, and keep insisting on futures that center care. Then share what you discover. I will be listening-and writing the next science fiction chapter accordingly.