We are the Sci-Fi Economics Lab. Inspired by science fiction, we nurture and support new, radical ways to think about the economy and economic policy.
About
Economists, politicians and business leaders, it seems, have given up on trying to imagine completely different economic systems. But we have not.
And neither has a small group of visionary science fiction authors: Cory Doctorow (peer production and abundance in Walkaway), Bruce Sterling (nomads + cheap open source technology + reputation servers in Distraction), Neal Stephenson (phyla in The Diamond Age), Peter Watts (tons of insights from biology in the Rifters trilogy), and others.
How
The Lab organizes Residencies and holds participatory workshops. Via these formats we guide participants through speculatory envisioning processes grounded in economics.
We learn from each other what future economies might look like, and maybe even how we can help bring them into the world.
We study and discuss science fiction economics and new economic theory on our forum, to join, simply head here and reply to any topic.
Upcoming events: Istanbul Innovation Days
If you are attending the UNDP’s Istnabul Innovation Days conference in March, you can sign up for the Science Fiction Economic Lab workshop here:
Projects
We were part of the Deep Demonstration on Long-Termism initiative by EIT Climate-KIC, aimed at showing what a long-term thinking society (and economy) could look like.
Witness
We assembled a community of economists, sci-fi authors and readers, to build a world that can serve as the background for science fiction works. In collaboration with Nebula-nominated author Yudhanjaya Wijeratne, this became Witness, a seasteding megacity floating on the oceans of a post-climate change planet Earth.
Vivid descriptions of economic institutions such as currencies, markets, trade, central banking and so on make the stories feel real, allowing readers to imagine their own life in different economic systems.
Participatory and open source, Witness can be freely used by any creator to set their work in, and several sci-fi short stories set in Witness have already been written.
