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- Convenors:
-
Julio Paulos
(ETH Zürich)
Ignacio Perez (University of Oxford)
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- Format:
- Traditional Open Panel
Short Abstract
Models have long been central to how societies govern their futures. From climate scenarios to forecasts, they turn complex dynamics into action. Today, digital twins, LLMs and simulations not only predict but act, transforming modeling into a politics of future-making.
Description
Models have long been central to the ways societies imagine, plan and govern their futures. From epidemiological curves and mobility simulations to climate scenarios and economic forecasts, they have served as technologies of future-making, representing complex dynamics in order to anticipate and prepare for what may come. Through dashboards, indicators and simulations, abstract futures are rendered actionable in the present, turning anticipation into administration.
Today, however, we are witnessing a profound reconfiguration of what models are and what they do. Digital twins, large language models (LLMs), real-time dashboards and generative simulations no longer merely represent reality from a distance but increasingly intervene within it. A digital twin of a city no longer simply forecasts flood risks but automatically adjusts water infrastructure; a mobility dashboard not only visualizes congestion but redirects flows as they emerge; an LLM no longer summarizes expertise but drafts policy texts that circulate and persuade. Models, once instruments of knowledge, are becoming sociotechnical actors in their own right, devices that both describe and perform the worlds they claim to represent (Latour 1987; Suchman 2007).
This shift from predictive and prescriptive, to automated and generative marks a new stage in the politics of modeling. Forecasts that once invited reflection now execute interventions. Promises of efficiency and resilience coexist with risks of bias, opacity, and the erosion of judgment. Dashboards promise transparency even as they delimit what counts as knowledge, concealing the infrastructures of data, computation, and labor that sustain their authority (MacKenzie 2021).
We situate these developments within a wider landscape of technologies of future-making, including scenario planning, foresight and road mapping, which do more than represent. They configure imaginaries, orient decisions and redistribute authority. Futures, in this view, are not merely described but actively constituted.