POETIC TECHNOLOGIES

“By poetic technologies I refer to the use of rational and technical means to bring wild fantasies to reality. Poetic technologies, so understood, are as old as civilization.” — David Graeber

We invite contributions on the broad theme of “imaginary technologies.” What is the relationship between technology and imagination? What does technology mean in a world that could be arranged otherwise? 

We’re not looking for academic articles. We would like work that is intellectually ambitious, and yet very accessible.

Background

Technology is always political. So is the imagination. Many technologies begin as imagined possibilities. Other technologies never take root because of how we imagine them, or fail to imagine them. Even when an imaginary technology never becomes real, it can still unsettle our sense of what is possible. 

Actually, all technologies — even the ‘real’ ones we use every day — are partly imaginary. That’s because they are embedded in narratives about what they are for, who uses them, and what kind of world they presume or promise. 

Then there is the open secret that everything we make, we could make differently.

Some ideas

We want articles and other things responding to the theme of ‘imaginary technologies.’ Can we imagine technologies that help us do less — not more — of things we don’t like doing? Can we imagine technologies that make us freer, rather than more efficient? If bullshit jobs produce bullshit tools, what kinds of tools might emerge from lives full of meaning and care? Can you imagine a technology that nobody has ever imagined before? If we didn’t have AI, what would we have instead? Should the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) spectrum extend into negative numbers? Could there be an alternative TRL spectrum? 

Are some technologies more reliant on human belief than others, and why? What if some of the most influential technologies are the ones that never worked … do some technologies actually function through never quite being invented? Sometimes the imaginary is a space where conflict plays out so that it doesn’t have to play out in reality (except when it does). Can we imagine what technologies are worth imagining, even if they aren’t worth making?  

What old technologies need to be revived or repurposed? What about technologies based on friendship, or on the small everyday acts of communism within communities and even among strangers — what might they be like? How might the Global South invent technologies that undo rather than redo colonialism? What have been some of the bigger (so far) imaginary technologies of recent years, technologies like commercial nuclear fusion, geoengineering, de-extinction, and how have they arranged relationships among people?

Guidelines

We like writing that is focused on change. We especially like writing that is big, bold, erudite, and accessible. We are open to theoretical articles, polemics, manifestos, practical guides, design fiction, aphorisms, convivial or poetic takes on emerging tech phenomena, field notes, speculative prototypes, literary criticism, imaginary readme.txt files or model cards, Africanfuturist and other -futurist interventions, visual essays, science fiction, reuser manuals, diagrams, dialogues, correspondences, or any kind of intervention that helps reimagine technology, re-technologise our imaginations, or arrange things differently.

Submissions should be 1,000-6,000 words unless otherwise arranged. The deadline for the first issue is February 2026.