Science fiction & fantasy are good tools to exercise mental creativity and think through scenarios of technical change. Fantasy is a useful way to explore how

Science fiction & fantasy are good tools to exercise mental creativity and think through scenarios of technical change. Fantasy is a useful way to explore how technology might work in a world with unlimited resources. For example, Dor the magician in Piers Anthony's Xanth novels is able to talk to inanimate objects. In some ways that fantasy approximates a future state for how we interact with AI enabled objects like Amazon Alexa or Siri. The USC Worldbuilding Institute (http://worldbuilding.institute/about http://worldbuilding.institute/about) has been researching how fiction can serve as a catalyst for engineering, business, and social breakthroughs.