“Most stories are written backwards. The author begins with some idea of how it will end, and arranges the story to achieve that ending. Reality, by contrast, proceeds from past to future. It isn’t trying to entertain anyone or prove a point in an argument.”
This seems to me like the most important takeaway for writing stories that are useful for thinking about the future. Sci-fi is great for thinking about possible future scenarios, but it’s usually written for entertainment value, not predictive value, and so tends to start with an entertaining ‘end’ or plot in mind, and works backwards from there to an extent.
“Most stories are written backwards. The author begins with some idea of how it will end, and arranges the story to achieve that ending. Reality, by contrast, proceeds from past to future. It isn’t trying to entertain anyone or prove a point in an argument.”
This seems to me like the most important takeaway for writing stories that are useful for thinking about the future. Sci-fi is great for thinking about possible future scenarios, but it’s usually written for entertainment value, not predictive value, and so tends to start with an entertaining ‘end’ or plot in mind, and works backwards from there to an extent.