In February
2020, I was invited to speak and do workshops with over a hundred Grade 11 and
12 students about the future in the “2020 Vision into the Future” conference at
Wilfrid Laurier University in Brantford, Ontario.
Journalist,
urbanist and futurist Greg Lindsay gave a rousing keynote speech to start the
conference. Greg spoke about the future of cities, technology, and mobility.
Greg is the director of applied research at NewCities and director of strategy
at its mobility offshoot CoMotion. He also co-authored the international
bestseller Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live
Next.
I joined a
suite of technologists, visionaries and other scientists in presenting various
scenarios of the future through workshops and seminars.
Workshop
subjects included quantum cryptography, autonomous vehicles, flying cars,
robotic surgery, zero waste, computer glasses, and writing science fiction.
Instructive
seminars included topics such as feeding 9 billion people, mental health, AI
& computers, the science and meaning of water, urban development, the
future of transportation and space exploration.
How to Write Science Fiction
I gave two
workshops on how to write science fiction. The workshop began with a brief
discussion on what a story is (and is not) and a summary of the key tools of
writing good story (e.g. premise, plot, theme, character, and setting) with a
focus on world-building and the role of science.
 |
| Most popular image prompt for storytelling |
Each group
then set out to create the framework for a story based on a premise from an
image prompt and shared what they’d put together. In one session we all worked
together with me scribing on one whiteboard, creating together as a class; in
another session, small groups formed and created their own story among four to
five members as I went from team to team.
Amazing
stories emerged in both cases from the image prompts chosen. Students
demonstrated imaginative, mature and original premises and carried through with
thoughtful and imaginative plot, theme and character journeys. I was very
impressed.
The Science and Meaning of Water
In this seminar I gave a summary of water’s life-giving
anomalous properties on Earth and discussed the history and field of limnology
(study of freshwater). I explored our history with water (including our
impacts) and the implications of climate change on our future with water on the
planet. Points of interest included water’s many weird properties, water’s
ubiquity and its origins, the hydrological cycle, and the often strange
adaptations of life with (or without) water. We then discussed future
implications of water scarcity (and geopolitical conflict) and some of the
things individuals and communities can do. Much of the talk drew from my recent
book Water
Is… The Meaning of Water.
Nina Munteanu is a Canadian ecologist / limnologist and novelist. She is co-editor of Europa SF and currently teaches writing courses at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for the latest on her books. Nina’s bilingual “La natura dell’acqua / The Way of Water” was published by Mincione Edizioni in Rome. Her non-fiction book “Water Is…” by Pixl Press (Vancouver) was selected by Margaret Atwood in the New York Times ‘Year in Reading’ and was chosen as the 2017 Summer Read by Water Canada. Her novel “A Diary in the Age of Water” will be released by Inanna Publications (Toronto) in May 2020.
