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As we end 2020 and begin another year, I want to encourage us to all to find ways to flex our imaginations a little. We’re told so often that the things we want, that could make life better for us and for our communities, are impractical, impossible. “It just can’t be done.” But this is often a failure of imagination.

Rent forgiveness for those unable to work due to COVID is impossible, but we found money to round up homeless people who were sheltering in vacant homes. And of course, we can always buy a few more helicopters or subsidize the production of corn. Student loan forgiveness though? Impractical, impossible! It simply isn’t done.

We can’t imagine it any other way. Without police, who would we call? Without Jeff Bezos as a Billionaire, how would we shop at Amazon? Without subsidies, family farmers would go broke! Walkable carless cities? But then how would we drive to the grocery store???

“Abolish prisons and racist policing” became “defund over militarized police departments” becomes “retrain those few bad apples” becomes “they’re doing their bests can’t you see?”

But 2020 has taught us that the impossible is really just a matter of framing. Things that were unimaginable happened, things that were unthinkable became real — often real fast. Some of these things didn’t actually happen, but they became real enough that they could have. Or might still.

Faced with a pandemic and a complete failure of our governmental institutions to act, we basically threw normal out the window. When cops kept gunning down black and brown people, we burned shit down. Abolition became something we could discuss as if it was possible (it is), defunding police departments became something we talk about in concrete terms. In some places the police actually got defunded. Other communities are working on it. We started taking care of each other in new (and old) ways.

So often we set our imaginations to the side. We think of imagination as childish fantasy, naive escapism. We tell ourselves and each other to live in the real world. The reality is we’re surrounded by visions made real. Visions of so many people, often who don’t have even the remotest shred of our best interests at heart or in mind.

There’s a field of practice that sits adjacent to design and research called strategic foresight. It’s used to envision what might be coming, scanning for trends and signals to see what’s possible, and sketching out scenarios of the plausible, probable, and preferable. Large companies employ foresight strategists and researchers to create visions of the future. Sometimes this work is just called “futuring.” Corning’s A Day Made of Glass is a wonderful example of this type of work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cf7IL_eZ38

In the video, they tell a compelling story built atop trends and scientific breakthroughs. An exciting way to live, for sure. It’s not unlike science fiction.

We forget sometimes, that under underneath all the page-turning, eye-popping entertainment, science fiction isn’t about mindless diversion or escapism. No literature truly is I don’t think.

But science fictions, as practiced by foresight strategists at Corning, have a central, unshakable component. These fictions are expressly intended to inform reality — by, for, with Corning’s interests at the core.

Apple does this too, and so do most big companies. Visions of the future from Apple and Corning can be quite compelling. Beautiful futures of driverless cars and fluid interfaces between humans and computers. Cities of glass and steel, no pollution. Instant access to the world’s knowledge, global connection to those people you hold dear. Better living through chemistry.