Chapter 5 : Speculative Everything Response

I found it interesting that we narrowed down the types of imagination present. Imagination is my experience has always been described in a singular sense. A nonreal idea. However, I never thought of the different sectors it can be divided into, scientific, mathematical, social, dark, etc., although common sense allows me to know that it does exist.

I also was intrigued by the idea of the intersection of the fictional and the actual. Because as the author denotes one is not-real and one genuinely is to everyone. Yet, the author also suggests that the fictional world still exists and is ready to be explored as needed. It's a concept that I do understand and believe we can all escape to (utopian or dystopian or whatever) but have no genuine proof for -- what separates this from the actual -- hence why I was so enticed by this explanation and distinction between the two.

Thought experiments as inspiration for writers were pretty cool too. Though not fully defined I understand what the author means because I believe this is because often I find myself doing this without knowing that I am. It's a process that requires no outline for me anymore and that I sort of just do before I write anything.

This was the most intriguing quote in the chapter to me: For us, the purpose of speculation is to “unsettle the present rather than predict the future.” I find it enlightening because I think a lot of us get caught up in trying to make something new and innovative that we create our own writer's block. This is because we think new and innovative means futuristic and have never been seen before. When in reality solving the problems or revisiting the perspectives we face now is what brings forward the future. Remixing and solving our current brings the new, it is the critical design. Essentially, the future is natural so we shouldn't force it.