Science fiction: Reimagining Technological Futures

In this course students explore and assess the possible societal impact of emerging technologies through critical analysis of existing sci-fi works that depict technologies, theoretical reflections on the role of narratives and mass media in shaping society’s technological imaginaries, and through the creative process of writing their own science fiction story. This is an interdisciplinary course combining philosophy of technology, critical media studies, and creative writing.
When an emerging technology appears in our lives, there is a race to capture the collective imaginary – how people relate to that technology – by using narratives that frame that technology as beneficial or threatening. In this race, fictional narratives (be those movies, stories or books) play an important role that can have a rippling down effect on how technologies are perceived by society for decades to come. The course will examine the complexities of fictional narratives about emerging technologies and how these narratives shape and feed back into technological innovation, while also discussing how the normativity of technology (its being seen as beneficial or oppressive) is also shaped by the narratives we craft about technology.