Saying ‘this is the future of x’ is bullshit

# Saying ‘this is the future of x’ is bullshit Most non-fiction portrayals of the future do not actually present a self-consistent vision of the future. They take one aspect and just say “here is the future of one thread” [[History as a braided rope]]. This kind of analysis works for history because the nature of time forces that thread to be self-consistent with the rest of the world. You can ignore the connections to the other threads, but they’re there. When you propagate the thread into the future, you’ve decoupled it from all the other threads. Presenting a single non-consistent world doesn’t enable people to engage with it or to draw their own future off the edge of the map. [[Self-consistent worlds enable you to draw off of the edge of the map]]. Instead [[Scientists, Engineers, and Economists should write more science fiction]]. Presenting a single vision in the context of science fiction *forces* you to create a self consistent world. Good science fiction enables people to imagine what is unsaid. Science fiction never says “this is what the future *will* be” - it says “this is what the future *could* be.” Contrast to ‘the future of X’ - which either explicitly or implicitly says “this is what the future will be.” The framing shift is subtle, but it turns the reader from a participant with agency into a passive observer to whom the future is going to happen. The difference is like the difference between Paul Graham’s essays and TED talks. [[Paul Graham’s essays are powerful because they demystify things]] and emphasize the agency of the reader, while TED talks emphasize the agency of the speaker. We could go one step farther and start treating good science fiction as case studies from a future history and analyze them as such. [[Treating Science Fiction as case studies from a future history]]. ### Related * [[X-punk imagines a world dominated by X]] * [[Treating Science Fiction as case studies from a future history]] * [[Most predictions suck]]  [Web URL for this note](http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Saying+‘this+is+the+future+of+x’+is+bullshit) [Comment on this note](http://via.hypothes.is/http://notes.benjaminreinhardt.com/Saying+‘this+is+the+future+of+x’+is+bullshit)