For the last several years, I’ve been exploring how older science fiction predicts and fails to predict our present day reality, including my own 2011 science fiction novel Redcrosse. Thinking through what writers got right and wrong as they looked forward can help us to see impediments to our own thinking right now—common mistakes, seductive leaps of faith, and blind spots.
Here in reverse chronological order are the newsletter issues (please subscribe; it’s free!) and other articles that I’ve written on this topic:
Retro Futures: War Games (October 20, 2024)
Retro Futures: “Wag the Dog” and Deep Fakes (February 11, 2024)
Retro Futures: “Redcrosse” and the view from 1997 and 2011 (April 28, 2023)
Retro Futures: AI and Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics (February 26, 2023)
Retro Futures: “Looker” (1981), Looking Back, Looking Forward (January 29, 2023)
Retro Futures, ChatGPT, & More (January 19, 2023)
My 2023 Prediction… or Prayer (December 25, 2022)
The World in April 2023 (July 3, 2022)
Retro futures and how they can help us to see what’s next (February 4, 2018)