Archeology in Reverse : Using Design Fiction to Build and Inhabit Preferable Futures

Résumé

This article synthesises a lecture by Julian Bleecker, a leading practitioner in design fiction, on the critical importance of making futures tangible. The central thesis is that conventional methods of foresight—relying on abstract forecasts, trend lines, and reports—are insufficient for navigating complex challenges like climate change, AI policy, and social inequality. Instead, Bleecker advocates for design fiction, a practice that involves creating mundane, everyday artifacts from possible futures to make them feel visceral, relatable, and debatable. The core methodology, described as “archaeology in reverse,” involves “bringing back” objects like product catalogues, HR manuals, or newspapers from a speculative future. These tangible artifacts act as powerful storytelling prompts, translating macro-level visions into the lived, everyday experience and allowing diverse groups to “see themselves in” a potential world. The article explores key concepts such as the “Go Over Backwards” mindset, a call for the creative courage to defy convention, exemplified by Dick Fosbury’s revolutionary high-jump technique. It also examines the power of detailed worldbuilding, as seen in the Star Trek Technical Manual, which inspired real-world innovations like the flip phone. Ultimately, the article presents imagination not as a frivolous activity but as an essential, practical skill for innovation and societal change, concluding with Bleecker’s urgent call to resist living in “someone else’s future” and to actively build and articulate our own preferred worlds through the creation of tangible, story-rich artifacts.