UC Berkeley

We present a set of design fiction proposals related to sensing and tracking technologies, inspired by the 2013 science fiction novel The Circle. By creating design proposals that explore connections between the novel’s imagined world and our present and future realities, we show that we are able to explore, expand, and articulate a range of social, technical, and legal configurations of the future. This paper contributes a set of design fiction proposals and a case study of a design project that uses design fiction inspired by a science fiction text to engage issues of privacy and surveillance. The paper also provides a new approach to creating design fiction, by using science fiction texts as a starting point.