Future Politics
PS 374 (Future Politics) is a seminar that pairs social science and political philosophy with science fiction. Students read these together, discuss them, and build concepts for how politics changes as technology, environments, and populations change --- and practice imagining alternative political, social, and economic futures. The most recent syllabus is here: PS 374 Fall 2025 syllabus.
William Gibson once said, "We live in an incomprehensible present. And that what I'm actually trying to do is illuminate the moment. And make the moment accessible. I am not even really trying to explain the moment. Just trying to make it accessible." Teachers help students ready themselves for a future and thrive in a present, so I worry about how to live in and shape both. Politics will and should change as technology, environments, and populations change. Undergraduates at the University of Illinois and I read canonical political theorists alongside science fiction authors so we can judge the politics of an incomprehensible present and an unpredictable future. We practice imagining a future politics to build a flexible political imagination --- following Jamais Cascio's idea that futurism is not prediction but mental readiness. We had some minutes of fame. You can see our syllabi from 2021, 2020, and 2013. You can see an overview of the Future Politics class here.
Talks, Interviews, and Collaborations
- Joined other political scientists at the Politics of the Future Workshop at Duke in June 2014 to ask what new politics demands of political science.
- Spoke at the "Brave New World" conference at the Casa da Musica in Porto, Portugal, in June 2015, funded by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. Bruce Sterling and I closed the conference in conversation.
- Talked with the Portuguese newspaper Publico about reading science fiction alongside political theory as preparation for the future.
- Drafted, with Cara Wong, an essay on what belongs in a child's room in an Internet of Things (IoT) home, after visiting Casa Jasmina in Turin.
- Argued on Australian National Radio's Science Fiction: Earth's repair manual? that science fiction sharpens political thinking about the future, with detours on why Marx is worth reading alongside science fiction.
- Helped John Ahlquist conceive the UCSD San Diego 2049 event.