Abstract
The paper examines the role of literary, artistic and media utopias within societal discourses concerning the development of technology. It specifically addresses the interaction between the performance of these three components of societal discourses with the elaboration of scientific approaches toward the future. Focusing on the genre of science fiction, it shows that the design of negative (‚dys’topian) and positive (‚eu’topian) scenarios in novels, art, movies does not only represent a valid examination of futures but has a significant impact on its form. Taking up movements and moods within society, they represent «soft» factors that – in their function as driving forces – are as effective and consequential as ‘hard’ factors. Thus, studying the future making potential of «soft» factors offers, complementary insights, that an analysis of the ‘hard’ rational-scientific, political and economic factors cannot provide. Literary, artistic, and media utopias enter a complex interaction with science in general and futures research in particular (and equally well with technology assessment, science and technology studies and similar interdisciplinary future-oriented academic endeavours). Against this background, it becomes evident that literary approaches toward the future unleash important (indirect, mediating) impacts on the processes shaping technical developments. Furthermore, they seem to exert a decisive influence on the social acceptance of far-reaching technical developments (like genetic engineering or artificial intelligence) and the framing of schemes for public funding of science (like the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union). These very factors, acceptance and framing, are of utmost importance for aligning and shaping actual innovation pathways. We can conclude that the stimulant power of imaginative futures and their capacity to alter realities is of utmost importance.