When I was producing a video on the different uses of science fiction as a form of foresight, I struggled to make sense of the differences and similarities between three seemingly overlapping and oftentimes conflated practices: science fiction prototyping, design fiction and worldbuilding. As the interest in using these practices to innovate products, inspire and engage audiences, and expand the boundaries of imagination about the futures is increasing among scholars and practitioners alike, it behooves to us to distinguish them. Indeed, although each of these practices draw substantially from science fiction, they also exhibit salient differences.
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