Existential Hope Special: Ada Palmer | On How Speculative Worlds Can Help Us Demand A Better Future

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Jan 31, 2025

In a captivating discussion, historian and sci-fi author Ada Palmer explores how speculative fiction can inspire governance and societal progress. She argues that our ability to imagine radically different futures empowers us to demand change. Ada highlights the power of pluralism as a solution to centralized governance and emphasizes learning from historical public health successes like malaria eradication. She also underscores the necessity of balancing good and bad news to combat despair, advocating for resilience and creative education for a better future.

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INSIGHT

History and Sci-Fi

Studying history and writing science fiction are similar.
Both explore societal transformation, offering diverse perspectives on how the world works.

ANECDOTE

Early Sci-Fi Influence

Ada Palmer's early exposure to complex sci-fi, like Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, shaped her understanding of world-building.
She emphasizes the connection between a child's experience of piecing together a world and a reader's experience of piecing together world-building in sci-fi.

INSIGHT

Speculative Resistance

Modern societies can envision diverse future possibilities, unlike Renaissance thinkers limited by historical examples.
Speculative fiction broadens our demands for change by offering numerous examples of alternative societal structures.

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"We’ve saved the world so many times throughout history. Now we just have to do it again."

What if speculative fiction could do more than entertain—what if it could reshape how we think about governance, technology, and societal progress? In this episode of the Existential Hope Podcast, historian and sci-fi author Ada Palmer discusses how we can harness lessons from both history and fiction to reimagine what’s possible for humanity.

Ada argues that one of the most critical advantages we have over past generations is our ability to envision a future radically different from our present. Unlike Renaissance thinkers limited by their own history, today’s societies can draw from an endless array of speculative worlds—both utopian and dystopian—to expand the horizons of what we dare to demand.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Ada digs into everything from concrete ideas for how to govern in a more pluralistic, adaptable world, to the importance of storytelling in addressing existential risks, exploring:

Why pluralism might be the antidote to centralized, one-size-fits-all governance and how speculative fiction shows us ways to make it work.
How past and present technological advancements—like eradicating malaria—can inspire hope for tackling today’s most urgent challenges.
What makes despair the ultimate barrier to progress, and how celebrating successes can keep us moving forward.

Full transcript, list of resources, and art piece: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts

Existential Hope was created to collect positive and possible scenarios for the future so that we can have more people commit to creating a brighter future, and to begin mapping out the main developments and challenges that need to be navigated to reach it. Existential Hope is a Foresight Institute project.

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