SE Valley Times

For nearly a century, nuclear deterrence theory—a paradoxical concept that nuclear weapons somehow make the world safer—has dominated the geopolitical landscape, informing technological development, international business dealings, and government policies that affect all aspects of civil society.

"Far Futures" is an evolving library of stories, experiences, and data-driven scenarios curated by Arizona State University’s Center for Science and the Imagination in collaboration with Horizon 2045. This nonprofit organization develops collaborative processes for learning and leading across existential threats, including those posed by nuclear weapons.

The project aims to explore what becomes possible when nuclear weapons are removed from human history. "Far Futures" employs narrative foresight, an evolving methodology that incorporates art and storytelling to create new mental models of the future. These techniques have been used to inform decision-making and long-term planning around climate change, AI, and planetary governance but have not previously been applied to imagine a world after nuclear disarmament.

“The nuclear risk reduction space is filled with incredible people working to bring about a world without nuclear weapons,” said Jenny Johnston, Horizon 2045’s editorial director and the collection’s lead editor. “In many ways, we know what we're trying to move away from. But what are we trying to move toward? Far Futures helps us envision what that world could look like.”

Building on a previous collaboration, Johnston and her team approached the Center for Science and the Imagination in 2022 with a provocative prompt: It’s 2095, four decades after the world’s last nuclear weapon is disarmed. What is different in that future? What does security look like? Has eradicating nuclear weapons helped us make progress on other existential threats?

The center has been consulted by NASA, the Smithsonian Institution, and other organizations seeking to use speculative fiction as a tool for engaging in critical conversations about the future. Applying these methods to the existential threat of nuclear weapons was challenging.

“The world’s nuclear arsenal has loomed over our culture for decades, and in a lot of ways this limits our imaginations,” said Ruth Wylie, assistant director at the Center for Science and the Imagination. “Many stories about the future are about human resilience after the bombs have dropped. Checking that fundamental assumption of impending disaster and exploring an entirely new possibility space was an exciting challenge.”

A number of creative scholars, scientists, and artists contributed to this project. Among them were acclaimed science fiction authors Annalee Newitz, Tochi Onyebuchi, Sheree Renée Thomas, Malka Older, Andrew Liptak, Madeline Ashby; illustrator João Queiroz; artist and composer Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), who produced a piece of symphonic music for the project; award-winning slam poet PAGES Matam; anthropologist Vincent Ialenti; and Peter Waring from the United Nations’ Innovation Cell.

“While each contributor was given latitude to explore different facets of this possible future," Johnston noted," their collective visions are hopeful reminders of humanity’s capacity for cooperation, adaptation and empathy in the face of transformative change.”