Science Fiction and Economics with Kate Beecroft

Kate Beecroft's session explored speculative futures, economic alternatives, and the politics of hope through visual storytelling and radical imagination. A voice speaks over scenes of a Martian desert, glacial landscapes struck by lightning, and an isolated island, weaving a narrative of crisis and division—continents sinking, resources extracted from the periphery to serve the center, utopian dreams dismissed, and despair looming over the future. Yet, amidst this, there is a call for hope and a shift toward protopia—an alternative to both dystopia and utopia, rooted in continuous, incremental improvement by Monika Bielskyte.

The Economy of Enarus envisions a world without private property, police, or traditional job postings. Mineral resources remain largely untouched, and economic growth is only possible through revolution. Inspired by Yanis Varoufakis' "Another Now", Bielskyte references a speculative fork in history where, after 2008, radical financial movements emerged to prevent the kind of economic collapse seen in our reality. In this parallel world, synchronized collective actions—such as withholding payments and defaulting on debt—reshape financial power, and companies are forced to divest or lose access to essential resources.

In "The Ministry for the Future", market logic is repurposed to counteract climate change, while eco-terrorism disrupts unsustainable practices—air travel, for example, becomes too risky as planes are targeted. An alternative economy emerges based on DIY production, where workers and makers operate through open-source licenses, free from corporate control, producing only what is necessary. The challenge remains: how to transition from the present system to such a decentralized, needs-based economy.

The session also explored game theory and speculative design, such as Cal Shredder, where virtual economies function within self-organizing mountain communities, and the work of Alberto Gotika, who has compiled a list of thirty science fiction books that present alternative economic models.

Economics, Beecroft argues, is central to speculative futures because it makes imagined worlds feel more tangible and hopeful. Political economy allows for the construction of realities not so distant from our own—ones where scarcity is recognized as a political choice, value is redefined, and wealth redistribution is a serious consideration. Concepts like opportunity cost, value theory, and GDP-driven growth shape the choices people make, but these frameworks can be rewritten. The session left open the question: if economics is a system of incentives, how do we redefine them to create a just and sustainable future?