Science Fiction Prototyping
Preface I took a class this fall semester titled “Wildlife & Society.” Through research papers we explored different parts of the world and looked at human-wildlife conflict. We looked at the debates around wolf reintroduction in parts the U.S., impacts of agriculture/fuel collection on Pandas in China, the impact of bushmeat in different parts of the world, and much more. One of the big takeaways from this class was that often times marginalized or poverty-stricken people end up bearing the brunt of conservation policies and that there can be unintended feedbacks in terms of how people view wildlife as a result. Our final project of the class was to write a science fiction short story based around the idea put forth by ecologist E.O. Wilson that half of the earth should be set aside for the protection of biodiversity. Some big questions around Wilson’s idea are: What does “Half-Earth” look like? Who does it affect? How is it enforced? Our short stories were aimed at ad