Story thinking for technology foresight

Abstract

This article explores how skills and knowledge from the field of science fiction and fantasy (SFF) creative writing can be applied in technology foresight, especially for workshops with transdisciplinary research teams. The practical model introduced here, Story Thinking, builds upon and complements existing models for combining elements of storytelling with foresight, and highlights the contributions of writing practitioners. It offers four benefits for transdisciplinary teams: (1) it provides effective and straightforward techniques to inhabit possible futures (2) it encourages researchers to empathise with the humans who may have an impact on the uses of new technology; (3) it allows these researchers to envision plausible, possible and preferable chains of cause and effect; and (4) it works to engage researchers across disciplines in a shared vision, developing affinities to see them through the complex dimensions of large research projects. This article offers a rationale and background for this model, articulates it as it currently stands, and analyses a case study emerging from an ongoing collaboration with the University of Queensland and the Australian Defence Forces (ADF).