The boundaries between imagination and reality have never been more blurred in the world of tech innovation. As we navigate increasingly complex relationships with technology, two emerging fields are helping us make sense of where we’re headed: design fiction and technology criticism. These domains aren’t just academic exercises—they’re becoming essential tools for understanding and shaping our technological future.
The Rise of Design Fiction
Julian Bleecker, researcher and founder of Near Future Laboratory, pioneered design fiction as a methodology that bridges storytelling with technological possibility. “Design fiction isn’t about predicting the future,” Bleecker explains in his conversation on Scratching the Surface podcast. “It’s about creating provocations that help us explore possible futures.”
Unlike traditional forecasting, design fiction creates tangible artifacts and scenarios from potential futures. These speculative objects and narratives allow us to experience and evaluate technological possibilities before they exist. This approach has gained traction beyond academic circles, with companies increasingly employing design fiction to explore product development pathways and unintended consequences.
“I’ve found that getting corporate clients to engage with design fiction often requires translation,” Bleecker notes. “They need to see how imagination connects to innovation—how speculative thinking creates strategic advantage.”
What makes design fiction particularly valuable is its ability to reintroduce imagination into technical disciplines. As engineering and design become increasingly data-driven, we risk losing the speculative thinking that drives true innovation. Design fiction counters this trend by creating space for “what if” questions that data alone cannot answer.
Design – The Critical Lens on Tech
While design fiction explores future possibilities, technology criticism examines present realities. Mike Pepi, author of “Against Platforms: Surviving Digital Utopia,” represents a growing movement of critics applying cultural theory to Silicon Valley’s products and promises.
“Technology criticism isn’t about being anti-technology,” Pepi clarifies. “It’s about examining the social, political, and cultural implications of technology—especially the narratives that frame how we understand tech’s role in society.”
This critical approach reveals how Silicon Valley’s language of innovation often masks power dynamics and commercial interests. Platforms present themselves as neutral infrastructures while reshaping industries and social interactions according to their business models. By interrogating these claims, critics like Pepi help us distinguish between genuine innovation and marketing hype.
“Silicon Valley needs the art world more than the other way around,” Pepi argues, highlighting how tech companies appropriate cultural capital to legitimize their influence. This observation points to a deeper truth: technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it shapes and is shaped by culture, politics, and economics.
Design – When Utopia Meets Dystopia
The tension between utopian promises and dystopian warnings has become a defining feature of our technological discourse. This mirrors trends in speculative fiction, where utopian and dystopian narratives have exploded in popularity.
Before 1900, about 400 utopian works were published in English. The 20th century saw over 1,000 more, with recent decades witnessing exponential growth in dystopian fiction, particularly in young adult literature and climate fiction. This shift reflects growing anxieties about technology’s role in addressing—or exacerbating—global challenges.
What’s particularly interesting is how contemporary tech discourse incorporates elements of both utopian and dystopian thinking. The same innovation might be framed as revolutionary progress by advocates and as dangerous overreach by critics. These competing narratives aren’t just rhetorical strategies—they reflect genuine uncertainty about technology’s implications.
“We need both utopian imagination and dystopian caution,” suggests Elizabeth Diller, whose architectural practice spans traditional building and speculative design. “Design is simultaneously problem-solving and cultural production.”
The Role of Research in Innovation
A research-driven approach is emerging as a bridge between speculation and criticism. Design studio Formafantasma exemplifies this trend, using research methodologies to investigate “the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping design.”
This approach recognizes that innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. New technologies emerge from and respond to complex systems, making contextual understanding essential for meaningful design. By incorporating research into the design process, practitioners can better anticipate impacts and identify blind spots.
“Moving between critical investigations and commercial commissions requires constant negotiation,” note Formafantasma founders Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. This tension between critique and creation characterizes much of today’s most thoughtful design work.
Rediscovering Imagination in Tech Development
Perhaps the most pressing challenge in technology innovation today is rediscovering imagination within increasingly standardized development processes. As Bleecker notes, “We need to help design students rediscover imagination—to see technology as a medium for exploration rather than just implementation.”
This call for renewed imagination doesn’t mean abandoning rigor or responsibility. Rather, it suggests combining speculative thinking with critical analysis and contextual research. This integrated approach allows innovators to ask better questions about what technologies we should create and why.
The conversation between design fiction, technology criticism, and research-driven practice is still evolving. Each field brings valuable perspectives to how we understand and shape technological futures. Together, they offer a more complete toolkit for navigating innovation’s possibilities and pitfalls.
As we face unprecedented technological change, these approaches remind us that the future isn’t predetermined. Through imagination tempered by criticism and informed by research, we can develop technologies that better serve human needs while addressing broader social and environmental challenges. The question isn’t whether technology will transform society—it’s whether we’ll bring enough imagination and critical thinking to shape that transformation mindfully.
