Using Science Fiction to Create a Better Tomorrow: A Future Tense Event Recap

Are robot babysitters ethical? “Where I’ve seen law and policy go horribly wrong is because they get frustrated talking to technologists … then you get tremendously bad laws,” Dan Kaufman of DARPA said. Patric Verrone, who wrote for Futurama, among other shows, said, “Science fiction is now about discussing internal things, rather than sending skyscrapers into space” or otherwise dreaming big and bold. We need people to carry them out,” by Neal Stephenson “Covenant,” a short story from Hieroglyph by Elizabeth Bear “Don’t Diss Dystopias: Sci-fi’s warning tales are as important as its optimistic stories,” by Ramez Naam “Only Science Fiction Can Save Us! What sci-fi gets wrong about income inequality,” by Lee Konstantinou “The Day It All Ended,” a short story from Hieroglyph by Charlie Jane Anders “Meeting My Protagonist: When I wrote a novel about a Nigerian space program, I didn’t expect it to be so close to the truth,” by Deji Bryce Olukotun “Welcome to the War of Tomorrow: How Futurama’s writers depicted asymmetrical warfare,” by Patric M. Verrone “The Dystopian City and Urban Policy: Science fiction has inspired scientists and political activists, but it should be an inspiration for municipal governments too,” by Annalee Newitz “Almost Humane: What sci-fi can teach us about our treatment of prisoners of war,” by Joelle Renstrom “Forget the Tricorder: Why gadgets aren’t the coolest part of science fiction,” by Joey Eschrich “The Inspiration Drought: Why our science fiction needs new dreams,” by Ed Finn