The Organising Power of Science Fiction

I'm currently reading Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe and it has inspired me. He has me thinking of the management potential of good science fiction writing and the vision it presents.

A few months ago when I was reading the doctor's first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, I thought I'd discovered him. However, he appears to be gathering quite a following in science fiction circles and publications. This is much like when I thought I'd discovered on-line journal writer, author, and sometimes science fiction fan Jason Pettus a few years ago at a time when the AvantGo version of his on-line journal had over 10,000 subscribers!

I used to read science fiction as a teenager. I bought more of it than I actually read, mainly because I'd often buy a whole series only to be disappointed by the first few pages of the first book. I recall many types of science fiction; but much of it offered no more than the combination of some other genre with new technology and a slightly exotic location. Western with laser guns, soap opera on another planet or in a space-station, love story with tragic death born of alien invasion. That sort of thing.

Cory Doctorow doesn't write that sort of science fiction. Cory writes pure vision. He reminds me of Stanislaw Lem but I don't really recall the details of Lem (it's been 15 years!) so I fear I might just be comparing them based on a generic 'goodness' rather than any specific qualities. Lem is worth checking out regardless.

Back to Cory Doctorow's Eastern Standard Tribe. My Palm e-book reader tells me that I'm only 17% into the book and already I'm intrigued by the novel's vision of the future. In particular, in the novel's incorporation current and evolving technologies into new social structures. It also has a focus on technology offering competitive advantage at a individual level.

You can feel (though no explicit mention has been made of them yet) the micro-payments swishing about as intelligent agents query information, verify documents, and raise alerts - all from wearable personal computers. You call also see evidence of technological 'arms races' as individuals and organisations each use increasingly technical solutions to counter the other's technologies.

All this amounts to a powerful vision. Management has been fond of vision for years now - but corporations are sadly lacking in technical and organisational (and organising) visions.

Why not outsource visioning? Perhaps Doctorow (who is already actively looking for alternative ways to grow rich from his writing), and other authors of his caliber, can hire themselves out to write novels which explore the potential of a corporation's products and services. Or even, after spending a little time hidden within the corporation's corridors � acting as an employee, perhaps � write a vision of how the corporation might operating internally or with its partners.

I'm not talking about propaganda - not even marketing - but a vision. Perhaps the vision completely destroys the corporations value proposition. Or perhaps two alternative visions are offered. There is no implication that the novel would be something you would want to show the shareholders. Should be a vision in the sense that it is a horizontal organising mechanism - a vision in the practical sense of an enabler of collaboration and organisation.

Interestingly, between the time I downloaded EST and the time I started reading it and typing this blog post, it appears that Vodaphone has made reference to the novel in one of its market-facing publications. Vodaphone obviously already see some of the commercial potential of Cory's vision.

Doctorow is already exploring the question of 'Eastern Standard Tribe coming true?' on his web site. He is also well aware of the need to experiment with alternative models for embracing and exploiting his creative talent � offering multiple distribution options for his work, including free Creative Commons licensed download being part of this. What he also needs to explore, and what people will pay big dollars for, is the potential for his writing to actually create, rather than just predict, the future.

Update (01/07/2005): I've been feeling kinda silly giving Cory advice (even if not directly). His name keeps coming up all over the place. He's certainly been doing a hell of a lot more than I suggested - and he's been doing it for years!