We are living through times of incredible social and political unrest, confronted by the rise of fascism, genocidal wars, the looming spectre of nuclear attack, climate catastrophes, the near-certainty of a new pandemic, and tech failures that do nothing but enrich the very, very few. Promising future gains and revolutions has become the main advertising strategy for AI and Big Tech companies, and it is little wonder that so many people no longer want to think about the future. Prediction itself is a loaded word, with unavoidable resonances of uncritical determinism, rationality and ‘objectivity’ at its core. For this reason, scholars from the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS), like many critical journalists or sci-fi authors, have long been wary of the notion of prediction.
However, there is also power in prediction, and in this first volume of the Predictions series we make a case for engaging with practices and cultures of prediction. We decided that a collection of predictions could generate a conversation as well as a sense of community. We invited our contributors to write predictions as a way to imagine and anticipate what’s to come, but also to reveal what we’re thinking and feeling right now, what our worries are and what predicaments we face. Because predicting always also implies transforming.
We might be overwhelmed by the present and feel political failure is all around us – but these very feelings keep us awake and engaged. We move ahead despite the apparently bleak reality of this moment, and we readjust our critical apparatuses. Likewise, we keep on imagining new futures. Predictions, volume 1 is a collection of raw, unhinged, despairing, yet also critical and playful predictions. We hope they serve as examples of how prediction can be handled in critical social sciences and humanities disciplines, especially through an STS lens.
Table of Contents
Preface
Mél Hogan, Stefan Laser & Edward Ongweso, Jr
Chapter 1: Introduction
Mél Hogan, Stefan Laser & Edward Ongweso, Jr
Chapter 2: Energy
Laura Watts
Chapter 3: Tourism
Jacqueline Jenkins
Chapter 4: Poetry
Tung-Hui Hu
Chapter 5: Love
Cymene Howe
Chapter 6: Caretakers
Naomi Okabe
Chapter 7: Small
Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal
Chapter 8: Realness
Blair Attard-Frost
Chapter 9: Super/Semiconductors
Anne Pasek
Chapter 10: Minerals
Sebasián Lehuedé
Chapter 11: Silence
Steven Gonzalez Monserrate
Chapter 12: Cables
Nicole Starosielski
Chapter 13: Clock
Sun-ha Hong
Chapter 14: Loneliness
Baldeep Kaur
Chapter 15: Servers
Estrid Sørensen
Chapter 16: Folds
Esben Lorentzen and Casper Bruun Jensen