I thought the exact same thing reading this -- this sort of science fiction prototyping reminds me of the kind of Scenario Planning practiced initially by Royal Dutch Shell, GE, and various militaries. GBN had a big business doing futures work for Fortune 100 companies for quite some time. This kind of engagement is pretty high-end business strategy work, but can be very compelling to a leadership team or a board that is working on long-term planning.
Clearly articulated potential futures can help large companies identify signals that a particular future is coming to pass or plan responses should that scenario become true.
In a world where technology seems to be "disrupting" almost every industry, it makes sense to me that science fiction futures would be especially relevant.
Yeah, it's hard to sell this to anyone except c-levels with the most discretionary of budgets, but it's very important work. FWIW it's nice to find someone else who's heard of this.
A few years ago Bruce Sterling was calling his sort of sci fi inspired strategic forecasting 'diagetic prototyping', or 'design fiction'. Less defense- or tech- oriented than film and product development. But it works in a similar way. We hire the oracles to inhale the vapors and tell us what they see.
Clearly articulated potential futures can help large companies identify signals that a particular future is coming to pass or plan responses should that scenario become true.
In a world where technology seems to be "disrupting" almost every industry, it makes sense to me that science fiction futures would be especially relevant.