Guest edited by Paul March-Russell. With contributions by Angela Acosta, Nick Hubble, Paul Kincaid, Nina Allan, Andrew M. Butler and a new regular column by Kat Kourbeti. Includes an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson by Henry Farrell, book reviews, and a tribute to Christopher Priest by Paul March-Russell.
Cover art by James Gillham.
Science Fiction and the DSTL at Coventry University
by Allen Stroud
This article was first published in Vector #297 in 2023. Since then, the work of the Creative Futures project has been published in the anthology Creative Futures: Beyond and Within (2025) by Flame Tree Press.
We’re going to change the world.
Some children think that when they are young. There is a confidence in being that young and not really understanding just how big the world is.
As we get older, we become aware of our insignificance. One human being, amidst several billion who are living on this planet right now and several billion more who have ever lived.
That recognition can lay heavily upon us. It confines our thinking as we consider what we might create, what I might create, what you might create. Making a difference, making that change, as mentioned, is further out of reach.
When we consider the future, the inhibitions of our experience, of our awareness of being a tiny part of the world that we thought we might affect, can be an insurmountable burden in and of itself.
There are people who retain their imaginative passion. Some end up in the fields of science and technology. Others continue to wonder and decide to write books. They become science fiction authors, like me.
The future of our species retains a fascination for many of us, no matter what choices we make in life. We cannot know for certain what will happen, but we can imagine. Sometimes,we dwell a little too much on the great heroes, who might become great figures of history in other narratives, or the shapers of what will happen next.
The different paths of those interested in the future are roads to the same place, the world which will exist in the years ahead. Our priorities might be different, but we all want that world to be better than the one in which we live.
When I accepted the role of principal investigator on the Creative Futures project, a collaboration between Coventry University and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), there were some concerns expressed around working with researchers from an organisation linked directly with the Ministry of Defence. A recent example cited was a comparison to the Raytheon sponsorship of the Hugo Awards at Worldcon 2021. Every individual needs to make an ethical choice for themselves in that regard, but that choice is not a simple or easy one no matter what decision is made. Being a part of any conversation allows you to contribute to it and shape it. The value of that cannot be understated.
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