Science Nonfiction Project // working title — v0.2 — pre-formation — 2026-04-08
// status: assembling founding cohort — writers, builders, bridge figures
Research // Landscape Audit
We mapped every significant organization working at the intersection of science fiction and science we could find. The audit covers accuracy consultancies, academic centers, film festivals, corporate foresight studios, and long-term thinking institutions. There is white space.
White Space Summary
After auditing 10+ organizations, the gap is clear. The four things nobody combines:
Key References
Books
Anthologies // format models
Prospectus // v0.2
A working prospectus for the Science Nonfiction Project. Working title, pre-formation. This is a document in progress, made public intentionally.
// last updated 2026-04-08 — pre-formation stage
The Artemis II crew is heading home. They flew further from Earth than any human ever has, watched the Sun disappear behind the Moon, and photographed an Earthrise from the windows of a spacecraft called Integrity. Moments of this mission have brought tears to my eyes and hope back to my soul.
Project Hail Mary is the biggest film of 2026. $425 million worldwide, 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, near-perfect audience score. A science teacher saves the world with curiosity and friendship. People are hungry for this kind of story.
These things are connected. Science fiction fuels the imagination that makes real science possible. The Martian sent 18,000 people to apply to NASA. Apollo ran on stories that SF writers built decades before the launch. The cultural scaffolding matters as much as the engineering.
And yet the space and climate technology sectors, building extraordinary things right now, have a storytelling deficit. The narrative infrastructure that once turned a generation of kids into engineers has thinned out at the moment we need it most. The human imagination is starved, worn down by turmoil and infighting. Feeding it with stories grounded in real science and real ambition feels necessary.
The Science Nonfiction Project is an effort to build a persistent community connecting science fiction creators with active builders. The output is aimed at public imagination, policy, and interactive formats. Not Hollywood accuracy consulting. Not corporate foresight. Not academic anthologies written for other academics.
We want to produce narrative infrastructure: stories, prototypes, experiences, and conversations that help the public understand and engage with frontier science. Start with space and climate. Build toward something bigger.
Signal+Static serves as the editorial arm and media partner. The initiative is the applied platform where writers and builders actually meet, collaborate, and make things.
The landscape is more developed than most people realize. The NAS Science & Entertainment Exchange has run 4,000+ consultations since 2008. ASU's Center for Science and the Imagination has produced serious collaborative anthologies with researchers. SciFutures has proven that companies will pay for speculative output grounded in real science. XPRIZE commissioned SF anthologies tied to prize competitions. Imagine Science Films pairs scientists with filmmakers at an annual NYC festival. The Sloan Foundation funds science-themed cinema across Sundance, SFFILM, and six major film schools.
All of this is meaningful work, and we have deep respect for it. But from what we've found, there appears to be white space. We haven't found an organization that combines all four of these qualities at once:
We may be wrong. We'd love to be pointed to what we've missed. But if this gap is real, it feels worth filling.
The founding cohort has four archetypes:
I'm looking for creative and technical partners to make this real.
If this resonates, if you're a writer who wants to go deeper, a builder who knows you have a storytelling gap, or someone who already lives in both worlds, the door is open. Read the prospectus, poke holes, reach out. I want to collaborate.
For sponsors and institutional partners: we're not raising money yet, but we're building relationships now. The right partners will help shape what this becomes.
At SXSW 2026, I was in a small room with space builders, SETI researchers, debris engineers, a frustrated NASA employee, and a sci-fi novelist looking for a physicist. A conversation caught fire about the storytelling deficit in space and climate tech. The work these communities are doing is extraordinary. The public doesn't know.
A 75-year-old who remembered Sputnik told the room he was deeply disappointed that we're still talking about going back to the Moon. It was the most lively and motivated discussion I witnessed in Austin. The energy was unmistakable: something needs to exist that doesn't yet.
I left with a commitment to act on it. This is me acting on it.
Get Involved
Four ways to connect, depending on your level of interest and what you bring to the table.
Get occasional updates on the initiative as it develops. New research, cohort announcements, events.
For writers, builders, bridge figures and ops pros who want to be founding members. The founding cohort will be 12–20 people, assembled carefully. Tell us who you are and what draws you here.
For organizations, companies, foundations, and institutions interested in supporting the initiative. We're building relationships before we're raising money. The right partners will help shape what this becomes.
No agenda required. If something here resonates and you want to make contact, this is the hatch.