Science generates innovation, even when it is explaining things that are already familiar to us. Above all, an affinity to fiction and the imagination is inscribed into this European project concerning the synthesis of technology and science. That is why, at the beginning of the new age of techno-science, utopias also appeared as precursors to science fiction. “What if” asks where a development of those ideas characteristic of science fiction will lead – ideas of the world as a network, the optimising of human bodies, intelligence and perception, transition into virtual realities, and not least the re-construction of the acquisitive society.
In six programmes of the series hör!spiel!art.mix broadcast from September to December 2006, Bayerische Rundfunk examined visions of the information society in science fiction: with radio plays, features and discussions. Parallel to this, a series of essays and interviews on the subject appeared at www.telepolis.de. The international literary competition “What if – Visions of the Information Society” appealed to writers of science fiction stories and radio plays. Finally, Heise Verlag Hanover produced a publication including the most important contributions to the project, edited by Stefan Iglhaut, Herbert Kapfer and Florian Rötzer
Patrons:
Office Information Technology Year. Federal Ministry of Education and Research