Science Fiction Prototyping

Science fiction prototyping (SFP) is the practice of using science fiction narratives to explore the social, ethical, and technical implications of emerging technologies before they are built. Developed by Brian David Johnson at Intel, the method treats fiction not as entertainment but as a prototyping medium: a way to materialize the consequences of design decisions in a form that can be debated, iterated, and stress-tested. A science fiction prototype is a short story set in a near-future world where a proposed technology exists, used to surface stakeholder concerns that traditional requirements documents cannot capture.

The method differs from design fiction in its emphasis on narrative over artifact. Where design fiction produces a physical or digital object from a speculative future, science fiction prototyping produces a story. The story functions as a boundary