From Frankenstein to Snow Crash, science fiction has long served as a mirror for our deepest ambitions—and fears—about technology. But what happens when these speculative warnings are misread as roadmaps? In this session, we’ll examine how foundational sci-fi novels, often crafted as dystopian cautionary tales, have been reinterpreted by today’s tech elite as aspirational visions: Elon Musk styling himself after Iron Man, Jeff Bezos chasing Star Trek-inspired space dominion, and Mark Zuckerberg branding his virtual empire with a term lifted from a dystopia of disconnection.

We’ll explore why these misreadings persist—and what alternatives we might imagine. Emerging genres like solarpunk and degrowth fiction offer radically different visions of the future: collaborative, regenerative, and grounded in ecological wisdom. What can we learn from Becky Chambers’ A Psalm for the Wild-Built, where humans and robots find harmony in mutual respect and simplicity? Or from Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed, which challenges us to rethink ownership, productivity, and the very structure of society?

Designed for storytellers, technologists, and policy makers alike, this interactive session invites you to consider the narratives shaping our future—and to co-create new ones. Join us as we reimagine speculative fiction not as escapism, but as a toolkit for envisioning just, sustainable, and humane alternatives