Andreu Belsunces: Engineering-fiction. Towards a political economy of sociotechnical fiction in the era of techno-oligarchy

Techno-financial capitalism is increasingly organised around a speculative triad. In the technological sphere, the industry projects both multiplanetary utopias and technological apocalypse; in the economic sphere, it promotes expectations—often unrealistic—of astronomical returns on investment; in the political sphere, visions of Western supremacy are projected while post-democratic experiments such as Praxis Nation are tested.

Throughout this process, the mobilisation of sociotechnical fictions proliferates. Unlike science fiction, these fictions are created and operate within the boundaries of science and technology (including entrepreneurial and investment cultures) and are therefore shielded by their authority. As they circulate through white papers, academic articles, financial reports, prototypes and corporate conferences, these fictions are regarded as legitimate knowledge. This gives them performative agencies distinct from those of traditional fiction: they help make imaginary technologies intelligible, influence trajectories of technological development, stimulate investment and mobilise both the desire and the anxiety that accompany promises of technological change. Within the triad of techno-financial speculation, sociotechnical fictions are accelerated by dynamics of hype instrumentalised to prefigure post-democratic regimes, which emerge alongside narratives of the inevitability of AI futures. Yet the logic inherent in this process is not new.

In this seminar, Belsunces begins with an analysis of the political economy of artificial general intelligence and World / Worldcoin as sociotechnical fictions. From this contemporary starting point, he argues for the need to develop a history of this type of fiction to understand how that which does not exist is summoned into reality through science and technology, and how this constitutes a matter of fundamental political importance.

Andreu Belsunces Gonçalves is a sociologist researching how technological futures are imagined, financed and governed—and how they govern us. His work connects science and technology studies with artistic and speculative research, focusing on sociotechnical fictions, hype and venture capital. He is a lecturer at ESCAC and Elisava, and a researcher at Tecnopolítica/CNSC at UOC. He is also a founding member of the international Hype Studies research network. His articles have been published in the Journal of Cultural Economy, Science & Technology Studies and AI & Society.