Speculative Storytelling, Real Science: “What-if” Questions in The Mountain in the Sea

Speculative fiction authors predicate their stories on creative “what-if” questions. Ray Nayler will demonstrate the close relationship of this process to scientific thinking. Using examples from his debut novel The Mountain in the Sea, Ray will discuss how he used a “what-if” question – “what if a species of octopus gained the ability to communicate using symbols, like humans” – to turn a lens on human consciousness and empathy, corporate greed, climate change, and resource overexploitation.

Drawing on his experience overseas working in STEM education, his time in Washington, DC as international Advisor for NOAA’s MPA Center, and his conservation work on Vietnam’s Con Dao Archipelago, where The Mountain in the Sea is set, Ray will explore how speculative fiction can be used to hypothesize about science and technology’s impacts, positive and negative, on human society – and to suggest ways in which we can live in better harmony with one another and our environment.