Future Histories of Technology

This class explores both literature about future technologies and literary technologies that move across periods, regions, and disciplines. Our cultural and historical approach to future histories of technology will illuminate how race, gender and sexuality, class, and nationality structure seemingly neutral research and development, usage, and innovation. Ultimately, our goal is to see how we’re not passive consumers but active participants in reimagining the present and future of technology.

Nathan Schneider (“Professor Schneider”)
nathan.schneider@colorado.edu (tips)
Armory 1B24
Office hours Wednesdays 3-5 pm or by appointment
Website: nathanschneider.info

• Become familiar with major texts and concepts relating to the future and technology
• Explore critical perspectives on structures of power in the construction of futurity
• Practice envisioning and crafting futures through fiction and worldbuilding

The course consists of a steady sequence of “epochs,” which are two week units that cover a given topic. In addition to exploring assigned materials, in each epoch students will produce a time capsule: a future-oriented artifact, accompanied by a statement that describes it in light of the assigned materials. The epochs will follow roughly a common pattern:

• Lecture and class discussions (classes #1-2)
• In-class reflection time on assigned materials (class #2)
• Workshopping capsules (class #3)
• Present completed capsule (class #4)

Attendance for all sessions is a basic expectation of the course. Please do not attend, however, if you exhibit any symptoms of illness that may be communicable. Inform the instructor of any anticipated absence before it occurs.

There is no final project or exam.

Class participation will be evaluated with the aid of a contribution-tracking system based on “kudos.” Students will issue kudos to document and celebrate each other's contributions to the class community, such as:

• Insightful comments or questions during class discussion
• Impressive sharing of coursework
• Helpful feedback on other students' work
• Modeling leadership, support, or mentorship

The instructor will issue contribution grades based on a review of the kudos scores. This is an experimental tool and its results will be treated with serious discretion, informed by student feedback.

For each epoch, students will produce a time capsule: an artifact from or about the future with an accompanying statement. Diverse mediums are welcome, and students should plan to use different mediums from epoch to epoch. An artifact might be, for instance, a:

• Written, audio, or video science fiction story
• Physical object from the future
• Operating manual for a future technology
• Artwork that represents a future world
• Forecast analysis of current trends to probable futures

The extent of the work will vary by medium, but expect to produce a capsule that reflects two weeks' worth of thought and craft. Inventiveness and quality matter more than quantity.

A 300-500-word statement accompanying the artifact should explain it to the class, connecting it to the current epoch and the assigned materials.

Students will workshop complete drafts of their capsules with fellow students, before turning in a revised version before the final class of the epoch.

Evaluation rubric:

• Artifact that reflects thoroughness, creativity, and craft
• Complete, stylistically correct statement that explains the artifact and its relation to the theme of the epoch
• Sophisticated engagement with at least two assigned materials
• Complete draft ready for peer review
• Evidence of revision and participation in peer review

• This syllabus is a living document and may be revised during the course. The current, binding form will be maintained on Canvas, and any changes will be explained in a Canvas announcement.
• Use of laptops and other screen devices is not permitted during lecture and class discussions. Such devices are likely to interfere with your learning experience and that of students around you. They are permitted and likely necessary during workshopping sessions.
• We respect one another's privacy and freedom to explore. Content shared in the course, in class or online, will not be shared beyond it without permission.
• We adhere to basic university policies regarding accessibility and academic honesty; we take responsibility for understanding relevant policies and procedures.

The course proceeds through a series of two-week “epochs,” each with its own set of assigned materials and creative work. All materials are accessible digitally at no cost, either on the open internet or through the campus library.

Students are not expected to study every word of the assigned materials; rather, they should generally familiarize themselves with all and choose one or two in each epoch to focus on especially.

• Ursula Le Guin, “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” (1986)
• Julian Bleeker, “Design Fiction: A Short Essay on Design, Science, Fact, and Fiction,” Near Future Laboratory (March 2009)
• Amelia Winger-Bearskin, “Before Everyone Was Talking About Decentralization, Decentralization Was Talking to Everyone,” Immerse (July 2, 2018)
• Ezra Klein, “N.K. Jemisin’s Master Class in World Building,” Vox (August 27, 2018)

• Revelation 17-22 (NRSV)
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Proletarians and Communists,” in Manifesto of the Communist Party, trans. Samuel Moore (Progress Publishers, 1969 [1848])
• Vernor Vinge, “The Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era,” Vision 21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the Era of Cyberspace, NASA Lewis Research Center (December 1, 1993)
• Sarah T. Roberts and Mél Hogan, “Left Behind: Futurist Fetishists, Prepping and the Abandonment of Earth,” b2o 4, no. 2 (2019)

• Lisa Raphals, “On the Intersection of Power and Prediction: Aspects of Divination in Early China and Greece” (2009)
• Jenny Andersson, “The Future of the World: Futurology, Futurists and the Struggle for the Post Cold War Imagination,” Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (2020)
• Dylan Matthews, “How a Ragtag Band of Internet Friends Became the Best at Forecasting World Events,” Vox (February 13, 2024)
• Russ Roberts, “Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Black Swans,” EconTalk (April 30, 2007)

• H.G. Wells, The Discovery of the Future (B.W. Huebsch, 1913)
• Wendy Schultz, “A Brief History of Futures,” World Futures Review 7, no. 4 (2015)
• Jens Beckert, “Fictional Expectations,” in Imagined Futures: Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics (Harvard University Press, 2016)
• Stories from Tomorrow: Exploring New Technology through Useful Fiction, UK Ministry of Defence (February 28, 2023)

• Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (Ticknor, 1888) [chapters 1-5]
• Andy Beckett, “Accelerationism: How a Fringe Philosophy Predicted the Future We Live In,” The Guardian (May 11, 2017)
• Ruha Benjamin, “Introduction: Discriminatory Design, Liberating Imagination,” in Captivating Technology: Race, Carceral Technoscience, and Liberatory Imagination in Everyday Life, ed. Ruha Benjamin (Duke University Press, 2019)
• Anisia Uzeyman and Saul Williams (dirs.), Neptune Frost (2021)

• Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” (October 16, 2023)
• John Cheney-Lippold, “The Silicon Future,” New Media & Society (March 8, 2024)
• Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century,” in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (Routledge, 1991) [only the first and last sections]
• Philip Butler, “Newhampton: A Future Forward(ified) Black City in the United States,” in Critical Black Futures: Speculative Theories and Explorations (Palgrave Macmillan Singapore, 2021)

• Kyle P. Whyte, “Indigenous Science (Fiction) for the Anthropocene: Ancestral Dystopias and Fantasies of Climate Change Crises,” Nature and Space 1, no. 1-2 (2018)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, excerpt from Ministry for the Future (Orbit, 2020)
• David Naimon, “Crafting with Ursula: Becky Chambers on Creating Aliens & Alien Cultures,” Between the Covers (January 10, 2022)
• Climate Action Almanac, Center for Science and the Imagination, Arizona State University

[ Notes ]