This isn't just about money—it's about securing the right for connective labor (weaving, diplomacy, cross-pollination) to be valued before it becomes tangible. By moving beyond structureless reciprocity toward a deliberate culture of rituals and fair exchange, we can build ecosystems defined not by coordination mechanisms, but by mutual care.

I have spent the past year doing a deep dive into fictions that imagine dystopian futures, exploring what rhymes with the future emerging out of our complex present and what these stories can tell us about our own experiences hoping and coping our way into the world we're co-creating.

I'll first compare works by authors like Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, William Gibson and Audrey Schulman, and media like Fallout and Silo, through the lens of eschatology and "existential hope"; and then we'll do an exercise on writing into speculative futures with the scaffolding of a condensed version of the Microscope scenario-writing & gaming format.