Event name: Speculative Futures: Researching Science, Fiction and Technology Excursion
Event time and place: McKeldin 4109 April 22 @1:00-4:00 PM
Introduction
Overall, this was a discussion about the uses of Science Fiction in the real world and how we can view the world through science fiction. According to Merriam-Webster, science fiction is “a genre of fiction that explores the impact of actual or imagined science and technology on individuals or society.” It is a very useful tool to imagine the future and how different settings, events, or actions will impact our world and those who live on it. It is a way of exploration, completely free from the restrictions of reality. The world can be organized however the author wants it to be, the government, the resources, the motivations, the struggles, and so much more. It allows us to explore what we can do in certain situations and the effects of our actions, without the fear of real personal attack, because it is fiction! It also allows us to criticize our current society and world and expose the realities of it. All in all, Sci-Fi is an irreplaceable tool to be able to bring progress of thought, which can be used in many different ways. In this discussion, we talked about a specific genre of science fiction, its contribution to the world of disabilities, and its contribution to the discussion of climate change.
Quantum Steampunk: A Conversation Across Disciplines
The first speakers, Nicole Yunger Halpern and Edward Daschle, talked about their creative writing class focused on the world of Quantum Steampunk, a Victorian-era setting with technology fueled by quantum physics. I did arrive a bit late, so I missed some context, but overall, this was a conversation about how scientific technology impacts society through questions in a Sci-Fi lens. They gave an example of a book they read about colonialism in India, with the twist of quantum technology being the thing that was exploited out of India. It seems like two very random topics being pushed together, but it allows light to be shed on the topic of the impacts of colonialism from a new perspective, with present-day implications. There was not a lot of conversation after that about scifi and society, but they wanted to emphasize the use of Quantum Steampunk and Quantum Scifi in general, which is that Quantum science seems way too daunting a topic for ordinary people to approach, so these scientists are making it more accessible through the arts, like literature. Quantum is a science that is being expanded and explored more and more, and many groups have investments in it, so bringing in more interest will be able to bring more people into the profession and expand the science further.
Future Bodies: Imagining a World with Disability
Led by Leigha McReynolds, we talked about disabilities in society in a workshop format. There wasn’t actually a lot of discussion about how sci-fi is used to talk about disability, but there was an overall understanding that we can use sci-fi to challenge the current understanding of disability in our modern day. She went over three main vocabulary words important for our discussion: genetics, eugenics, and disability. Genetics, being the makeup of life, the building blocks, but they also provide a very human, social thing of creating cultural reference points for how or why we are the way we are. Eugenics is a pseudo-science which suggests society should/will eventually “improve” the human population by favoring specific desired genetic traits. And finally, disability, a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, often defined legally, medically, and/or socially. Dr. McReynolds encourages us to reflect on the idea of eugenics and disability in general, showing how we seem to view differences as something to fix rather than embrace. We are not accomodating disabled people to be able to be able bodied, we are accepting and valuing the diversity and new perspectives they bring. She emphasizes that the future should not be all “normal” brains; we should make the world accessible to all. We are not getting rid of ‘disabled people’, we are broadening the scope of our norms. We can use sci-fi to explore how society interacts with bodies, minds, emotions, and how we have the power to explore that in our near futures.
Can Science Fiction Help Solve Cimate Change?
Finally, led by Dr. Mitchell Pavao-Zuckerman, we explored the vital intersection of ecology and literature, arguing that sci-fi can be used as more than mere escapism but as an actual tool for describing our future connections to the world and each other. Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman teaches a couple of courses about the intersection of science and fiction to highlight how "imaginaries" and environmental settings shape our social systems and resilience. Imaginaries are visions of the culture of a place, especially cities. They are examples of how ideals in a society create a culture and further how that influences their day-to-day life. Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman emphasizes the necessity of reframing the climate crisis; rather than focusing on doomsday scenarios that lead to psychological defeat, he explains that promoting hope and creative solutions to the climate crisis is essential for meaningful action. This involves looking at diverging climate models through the lens of intergenerational equity, ensuring we are thinking of the actual lives of the future generations and how they will be affected on a grand scale but also a small scale, to be able to conceptualize an actual possible future. Another interesting point is that we must acknowledge that the concept of "apocalypse" is not new to everyone, referencing how Black and Indigenous histories have already navigated world-ending events like the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Columbian Exchange. Ultimately, the talk demonstrated that by using science fiction to envision safe and equitable futures, we can better plan the creative, real-world solutions needed to address the environmental challenges of today.