Questions about the future have always been an integral part of our human condition, and Science Fiction has been a prime area to imagine, and thus to engage in thought experiments – the ‘what ifs’ of past, present, and coming worlds and pluriverses. Those questions and experiments have never been more relevant than now, when our wandering ‘blue dot’ planet is suffering the devastating effects of a Covid pandemic alphabet soup, which is directly related to climate change and human development. Today the ideal society, the democratic Utopia, promised by modernity and the Enlightenment and, more recently, by networked information, platform technologies and neoliberal globalization, is nowhere to be seen. Through sci-fi and its novum or kehuan and Mo Biao as avenues to imagine alternative worlds, we will explore the topologies of estrangement, magic, cognition, time, and the politics of nature, virtual reality, AI and machine learning. Drawing from film, graphic novels, theory, literature, and current news, we will search for clues about our past and paths to our future. It has never been more urgent to imagine and to create new stories and new worlds.Philosophy and Critical Theory (PHCRT) courses focus on developing critical reading and thinking skills, with an emphasis on learning to frame and explore meaningful questions. Students consider multiple perspectives and claims in the process of formulating independent, well-founded opinions.

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