Science Fiction Economics is a hotter topic than ever before!
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As William Davies notes in “Economic Science Fictions,” creating new economic science fiction is a political imperative. Capital’s economic science fictions cannot only be opposed; we need to counter them by economic science fictions that resist the monopolisation of our possible futures.
This resonates deeply with the mission of Science Fiction Economics, as economics and fiction share fundamental qualities: both deal in collectively-endorsed concepts (like money), require future speculation (as in futures markets), and construct imaginary worlds (like startups raising venture capital).
The potential is clear: if economies are built using fictional tools, we can reimagine them using those same tools. Science fiction can remake the realm of economic possibility, whether by dreaming up new methods of exchange or experimenting with radically different value theories. This perspective aligns with thinkers from David Graeber to contemporary new economic theory scholars to science fiction authors like Cory Doctorow.
Upcoming Related Events
How Can Science Fiction Help Design Better Science and Tech Policies?
“Good science fiction does not dream up just the automobile, but also the traffic jam.”
Date: February 20, 21:00 CET Host: Arizona State University
International Workshop: Speculating the Future: Fictional Worlds and Financial Realities
Date: May 22-23, 2024 Location: Copenhagen Note: Abstract submission required for participation. I’ve inquired on behalf of Science Fiction Economics.
Protocol Fiction Week (happening now!)
Date: February 10-14 Location: Austin Host: Summer of Protocols
Focus: Exploring how new infrastructure can emerge through protocol-based networks, similar to the internet’s development.
Note: It’s too late to join this, but it’s worth mentioning because of their unique format and the synergies between Protocol Fiction and Science (economic) Fiction.
Recent Publications & Resources
Science Fiction as a Policy Tool
Ed Finn from CSI at Arizona State University
“By centering characters—people—instead of technologies, writers have to offer concrete answers to those nagging questions which can be so easy to gloss over when an invention or discovery exists only as a concept. Who will own it, use it, pay for it, maintain it? Where will it be installed or deployed? What does it look like, smell like, feel like? How does it actually work?”
Strange New Rules
Scroll down the blog to ‘Chiang’s Law’
Science fiction is about strange rules, while fantasy is about special people.
According to Chiang, science fiction is the literature of change, while fantasy is the literature of changelessness. Science fiction is the process of figuring out how the machine works, even as we work to evolve it, and evolve with it.
Two older resources:
Economic Science Fictions
edited by William Davies
This is from 2018, and has been referenced on this forum before, and of course most people here will be familiar with a version of the first entry Ecoomics, Science Fiction, History and
Comparative Studies by Ha-Joon Chang . This collection is not science fiction, but rather scholarly meta reflection on the importance on economic science fiction. I think it has immense value, although theorising about a topic is sometimes easier than practicing or doing said topic, that is, writing actual science fiction 
The Theory of Interstellar Trade
Paul Krugman
This is where a practitioner put his money where his mouth was and wrote some Sci Fi Econ.
Basically if you’re shipping goods between star systems, the time experienced by the spaceship crew will be different from the time experienced by people on the planets due to special relativity.
Krugman develops two main principles in the paper:
- Interest rates on goods in transit should be calculated based on the time experienced in the goods’ rest frame
- Arbitrage between planets must consider relativistic time differences
The paper is often cited as an example of how economic principles can be applied to seemingly far-fetched scenarios, while still maintaining theoretical rigor.
Some of my convo with Claude about it 
:
Science Fiction and the Dismal Science
Anyone read this one?
