Future Histories of Technology

MDST 2046

This course explores how visions of the future have shaped the development of technology, and how technologies shape visions of the future in turn. It reveals how claims over the future organize power relations and constrain imaginations. Coursework takes the form of a creative workshop, where students make original multimedia artifacts and engage in constructive critique with one another.

Dr. Nathan Schneider (“Professor Schneider”)
nathan.schneider@colorado.edu (email etiquette)
Armory Building, 1B24
Office hours: Wednesday at 3-5 p.m., 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, four-session units that cover a given topic. In addition to exploring assigned materials, in each epoch students will produce a creative artifact from the future, 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 artifacts (class #3)
• Present completed artifacts (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.” At the end of each epoch, students will evaluate fellow students in their groups. Students will document and celebrate each other's contributions to the class community, such as:

• Insightful contributions during class discussion
• Helpful feedback on other students' work
• Modeling leadership and mentorship

The instructor will issue grades based on a review of the kudos scores and participation in scoring others, combined with the instructor's evaluation of student contributions during class discussions.

For each epoch, students will produce an artifact from 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 an artifact that reflects two weeks' worth of thought and craft. Making things by hand is more welcome than automated fabrication. Inventiveness and effort matter more than quality or 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 artifacts with fellow students, before turning in a revised version before the final class of the epoch. Make sure that it is possible to compare initial and final drafts. Turn in assignments as attachments, rather than links, wherever possible.

Each epoch provides an assignment for its artifact, and these should build on each other. The artifacts don't have to be continuous in nature (such as all belonging to the same world), but each artifact should satisfy the assignments of several previous artifacts as well as its own.

Evaluation rubric:

• Artifact that reflects thoroughness, creativity, and craft, and that completes the epoch's assignment
• 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

Grading will follow the expectations stated in this syllabus.

If you need an extension on any assignment, consult your instructor ahead of time. Late projects will be penalized 5 percentage points per day.

Plagiarism and similar lapses in academic honesty can result in no credit for the assignment and referral to campus authorities.

Based on the stated percentage structure, grades will be awarded as follows: A (94-100), A- (90-93), B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (0-59). The minimum passing grade is 60 for undergraduates and 70 for graduate students.

• 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.
• Be present in our interactions together; students should put away screen devices during lectures and class discussions
• 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.

AI policy: Since this course emphasizes the cultivation of craft and creativity, generative AI should not be the primary means of producing anything turned in as original work.

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 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)
• Ezra Klein, “N.K. Jemisin’s Master Class in World Building,” Vox (August 27, 2018)
• Sheila Jasanoff, “Future Imperfect: Science, Technology, and the Imaginations of Modernity,” in Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim (eds), Dreamscapes of Modernity: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Fabrication of Power (University of Chicago Press, 2015)

Artifact: Depict a world that is neither utopia or dystopia.

• 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)
• Dan Schwartz, “Are Prediction Markets Good for Anything?, Asterisk (April 2026)

Artifact: Develop a character facing a dilemma.

• 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)

Artifact: Introduce the structure and experience of a system of power, and do so using an artifact from the Media Archaeology Lab.

• John Cheney-Lippold, “The Silicon Future,” New Media & Society (March 8, 2024)
• Jamie Brassett and John O’Reilly, “The Lore of Hyperstition,” Digital Creativity 36, no. 2 (2025)
• Aimee Walleston, “Cultural Palantirism: Abuse of Fantasy Fiction Comes as No Surprise,” Do Not Research (March 2, 2026)
• Justin Hendrix, “How to Study the Phenomenon of Tech Hype,” Tech Policy Press (March 29, 2026)

Artifact: Have characters interact with promises that are appealing but potentially false.

• 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)

Artifact: What comes after liberation?

• 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)
• 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]
• 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)
• Marc Andreessen, “The Techno-Optimist Manifesto” (October 16, 2023)

Artifact: Encounter human-like activity in non-human agents.

• 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])
• Sarah T. Roberts and Mél Hogan, “Left Behind: Futurist Fetishists, Prepping and the Abandonment of Earth,” b2o 4, no. 2 (2019)
• Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, Romeo Dean, AI 2027 (April 3, 2025)

Artifact: Bring a world that you've already created to its end.