In this great podcast by Futurepod, Leah offers multiple new tools to utilize within the process of scenario development and storytelling; in particular, how we might leverage the science fiction framework for worldbuilding, to develop richer, more engaging and holistic stories of the future. The interview covers Leah’s minimum specification (minspec) for futures work and anti-archetypes, but the major highlight was undoubtedly the exploration of Leah’s worldbuilding model as an act of intentional systems design which “leverages the interplay between worldbuilding and storytelling through the use of narrative, which scenarios sometimes lack”. 

Leah suggests that good science fiction sits at the intersection between foresight, systems and design, and worldbuilding as an intentional systems-design approach, invites us to develop richer alternative future stories by developing our narratives within a broader contextual system. Her thesis centers around the idea that a story cannot exist without a world, and so her worldbuilding systems model enables her to conceptualize a more comprehensive holistic world, from which future narratives could plausibly emerge. 

Leah identifies seven elements in her model, and uses these to deconstruct the operating system of the domain in question. In her worldbuilding model, these elements help to identify the opportunities for leverage (or intervention) within the domain system, and thus are critical building blocks for the development of alternate futures. It is her emphasis on utilizing (what we may substitute for PESTLE or STEEP), to deconstruct, intervene and reimagine the domain system, along with her inclusion of the philosophical realm, that distinguishes it from existing frameworks. Leah’s tool nudges us toward an explicit consideration and inclusion of the artistic / philosophical context of the domain we are exploring; suggesting that the myths and worldviews which make up our ideas about the present (and future), must also be considered, included and reimagined, in order to create a unified and believable experience of the future

Leah also reasons that the worlds we might create with this framework, could potentially hold more than one narrative (or more than the project narratives we might traditionally develop to answer a brief) and could in fact, hold multiple narratives for multiple players in this new future state.  It is this grounding of narrative within a deeper richer world context; a future eco-system, which offers us the chance to develop a more accessible and visceral experience for the reader.  It is this alternative worldbuilding, which offers readers the chance to engage and imagine in a way that reshapes their fundamental ideas about the future. 

For Leah, traditional scenario development can sometimes be too superficial or reductionist in its approach, framing future stories as composed of components of change within a narrative, rather than a completely immersive future worldview. I’ve since read Leah’s OCAD thesis and her papers around science fiction and worldbuilding, and am keen to explore how I might utilize this in my own work. Not only the inclusion of additional philosophical, artistic and scientific considerations in scanning and drivers of change; but the idea of worldbuilding as a contextual container to develop richer more immersive stories of possible futures.

You can listen to the podcast here