I gave a lecture at Stanford’s CS547 course on HCI that gets into the impactful role of storytelling in creating believable futures. I pulled out old chestnuts as exemplars, like the films ‘Jurassic Park’ and ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’ The discussion on diegetic prototypes and projects like ‘Curious Rituals,’ emphasize how visual and narrative tools make complex concepts more accessible to the public. I also examine the practical applications of technology, such as self-driving cars, and the value of creating an experience prototype simply and affordably through a Design Fiction artifact like a quick start guide. Remember that there is real value in doing speculative product designs to help unpack the rich and contingent complexity of systems we create and expect to live in the world!