2023.Mar.20

REPORTS

The 10th BAIRAL Research Meeting for 2022 Report on “Talking about SF Prototyping or not”

On March 3, 2023, the 10th “BAIRAL” Research Meeting for 2022, organized by the research assistants of the B’AI Global Forum, was held online. SF Writer Kyosuke Higuchi was invited to speak on the topic “Talking about SF prototyping or not.”

The lecture began with an overview of SF prototyping, its characteristics, methods, and case studies. Among them, the case of the SF prototyping workshop in a sponsored course at the University of Tokyo “Kodansha-Media Do New Book,” which is the latest case, was used as the main axis to discuss how the way of looking at the world through SF will play an important role in envisioning future society. The second half featured a Q&A session with the participants, who discussed the relationship between SF prototyping and society according to their own views.

The SF prototyping proposed by Mr. Higuchi is a way of thinking that allows us to imagine and create the future we truly want as well as a tool for exploring a future that is “somewhere other than here,” which is free from various constraints of reality. SF novels created collaboratively in a process of constructing new stories through discussions with others and sharing new ideas in the process become one big vision, from which back casting can be done to encourage immediate actions. The discussion provided us with an opportunity to gain new insights into rethinking contemporary society from such a SF prototyping perspective.

In the future, it is desirable to create more opportunities for actors from various fields, affiliations, and positions to collaborate on interdisciplinary research and activities. BAIRAL will continue its research and training so that it can contribute to society as a media/community that can lead to such opportunities.