PopSci recently co-hosted an event called Thrilling Wonder Stories. Architects, designers, journalists, musicians, novelists and, yes, scientists spoke about their work—which everything from UFO mythology to the history of terraforming. Each presenter was also asked to consider the near future, to think about and sometimes even show us what their vision for the future might look like. The event takes its name from a mid-20th century science fiction pulp magazine, and the allusion is apt. Each talk began in the past, with real research and real facts, and used that as a springboard to envision what will happen tomorrow, or next year, or next decade.

 

Often these visions were fantastic. You can see why PopSci would want to be a part of this, seeing as we’re all about the future, even the far-out version (have you seen our old covers?). So, here is our vision for the next several weeks: videos of some of the talks, photos and summaries of others, and Q&A’s with a few of the speakers. It was a thrilling and wondrous weekend, and we aim to share it.