Welcome to the Unapocalypse

Where SciFi and Design intersect

Back in 2019 I put a newsletter signup sheet on my old website, www.kschroeder.com. Just as I was poised to start it, we all fell down the emotional, medical, financial and creative rabbit hole that was COVID-19. Recently, a futurist colleague commented that "Western societies no longer call for action in order to achieve the best of all prospects; instead, the principal aim is now to avoid the worst possible future." This rings true; and this change in our societal expectations is terrifying. After four years we find ourselves in an entirely different world. We’re all a bit lost and we seem to have trained ourselves to automatically view the future through an apocalyptic lens.

The Future They’re Selling Us

Sorry for the delay, folks, we’re cleared for takeoff

I originally planned to talk about my own projects, upcoming appearances, interviews, etc. I’ll still let you know all that stuff. But right now, we find ourselves in a full-out climate catastrophe, suffering pandemic trauma, precarious living conditions, political instability, and (apparently) an impending AI apocalypse. We’ve become very good at imagining the worst—connecting the dots and coming up with plausible scenarios for how the world will end. While doing this, we’ve apparently lost the skill of doing the reverse: tying together the diverse threads of innovation and determination that are also visible all around us, into plausible reasons for hope; and beyond that, into plans.

My mantra: What if everything goes right?

Unapocalyptic is about designing hope. The method: I’m going to show you how to use the same techniques of scenario design and worldbuilding that we’ve come to unconsciously apply in negative ways, to consciously devise actionable plans for better futures.

What you’ll get

Unapocalyptic is about redesigning our civilization; or, better yet, designing the civilization that will come after ours. We don’t have to stagger blindly into dystopia. The newsletter will give concrete examples of how to reimagine the future, starting with a series on space travel and space colonization that I’m calling The Single Family Space Colony. I’ll also talk about:

• News about my work, upcoming stories and appearances, announcements and new projects—such as ViV Games.

• Free stuff, including design fictions and short-short stories. Discussions about writing including crafting plot, character, and worldbuilding.

• Design thinking and foresight tools you can use to chart your own course.

• Great resources you can use, such as the latest foresight scenarios by leading Futures consultancies—for instance, the Future of Agriculture by RethinkX.

My main tool for doing all this is something fun--a thought experiment. It goes like this: What would an entirely 21st-century science fiction look like--an SF that takes none of its inspiration from what my daughter calls “the 1900s” but has a vision that lives entirely in the 21st century? Together we’ll do worldbuilding around new ideas to explore what I call earned optimism: belief in a positive future that’s backed by evidence and real-world action.

When you’ll get it

I’m aiming at once a week or so, with occasional deep-dives into specific subjects in a paid tier (because I like getting paid for my work). I’ll also be linking to many projects by brilliant people who exemplify the unapocalyptic philosophy of designing for a positive future.

So the plan is simple: to reimagine the future by reimagining science fiction’s core ideas. The purpose? To help you earn hope in the future and give you tools and access to resources that’ll help you confront that future on your own terms, framed as a truly 21st century project.

Next: Reimagining space with “The Single Family Space Colony”