Malka Older keynote on collectively defining the future of knowledge: transcript

Key points

• Older describes Global Voices as a community like Wikimedia, amplifying underrepresented voices online.
• She says every prediction, from weather forecasts to economic forecasts, is a kind of science fiction built on knowledge.
• She names three biases that lend futures false authority: quantitative bias, an impersonal style, and certainty.
• She says people who speak with certainty about the future deserve the most skepticism, and that human agency and unpredictable choices shape what happens.
• She asks the audience to write the opening of a Wikipedia entry from the future, driven by spite, wishful thinking or both, and to share it with a neighbor.
• Volunteers share entries, including the end of the American empire and a handbook called The Book of Circles, and she closes by urging human-centered, inclusive building of the future.

Chapters

1. 0:07Thanks and who Global Voices is
2. 1:44Why the future is not inevitable
3. 4:19Three biases in how we judge predictions
4. 6:53Human agency and embracing uncertainty
5. 8:33Exercise: an entry from the future
6. 12:04Writing and discussing entries in the room
7. 15:23Audience shares their future entries
8. 17:23Closing: preparing without certainty

Full transcript

0:07Thank you. And I will just say that sitting there and listening to this intro, I am honored to be here because this is such an amazing organization and community. I don't, I think sometimes it can be hard to remember how it looks from the outside, but you all are the heroes of the information age. You really are. I'm not going to say conquering heroes, but I'm going to say the undersung administrative and management heroes who were always the people who got things done and kept kingdoms and reigns running. So thank you for everything you do. I'm really, it's amazing to be here and be talking to you about this. As was said, I am the executive director of Global Voices. Okay, I wanted to put a space for the people who know it to to give the shout but also for those of you

1:08who don't we are a community not so different from the wikimedia and wikipedia communities we are also people who care very deeply about the kind of information that is available in the world And try to amplify the voices that are underrepresented, particularly in the digital sphere, and make sure that the Internet can be what it has the potential to be and really represent the amazing world that we live in. That's what we're all working for, and we know that this is a really difficult time to be doing that.

1:44the same things that make it difficult are the things that tell us it is needed more than ever. So we are out there with you on this but I think the reason that I was asked to speak here is not so much because Global Voices is a mission aligned organization that does a lot of work together with Wikimedia and has a lot of overlaps but because I am a science fiction author and I'm here to talk to you about the future and the future is really everywhere right now we are seeing it talked about in so many ways in so many places and very often we hear the future talked about as something that's already done basically something we know about something certain things are going to happen sooner or later it's inevitable and so I'm here to question that a little bit I I also want to point out, as we think about all the different ways...

2:45The future is presented to us and the different ways that we think about it, that all of these ways are built upon knowledge. They're all built on information and knowledge sharing. Some different kinds of knowledge than others, and some that we may agree with or may not agree with. Some do not meet the Wikipedia standards for citations. but all of them even the ones that seem very scientific please keep in mind that all of these are science fiction because nobody knows what's going to happen next nobody knows the future I'm going to talk about some of the different ways that we evaluate the future this is something that I've been thinking about as a science fiction writer and also as a sociologist which is my other other hat but you all are also experts in this area of thinking about knowledge and categories and so I want to just say very clearly that these

3:48are the impressions and the insights that I had from thinking about it but I'd be really interested to hear about your thoughts and they're absolutely different ways of categorizing this but as I have been thinking about All of these different predictions of the future that we come up against every day, from weather forecasts to macroeconomic forecasts to someone saying, oh, this product is the next big thing, to saying, oh, this is what's going to happen to our climate in the next five years.

4:19as I think about how all of these are really science fiction some with more science and some with more fiction I've started to wonder why we as a society put so much more respect and emphasis on some of these than on others why do we print the weather forecast in the newspaper even though we all know it's usually wrong and we we know that we should carry an umbrella even when they say it's not going to rain and yet it's it's positioned there is news and it does have a lot of science behind it and it's really important but why are some things considered more valid about the future than others so I came up with these these three categories one is the quantitative bias there's a lot of that in our society I'm sure you've all come up against it but it's it's not it's not the only thing there's also I've noticed a really an emphasis on telling things in an impersonal way to make them seem more scientifically rigorous so to give a

5:20couple of examples here you know people will talk about the economy doing something As opposed to the people who actually make the economy run. People will talk about, you know, in a passive voice, oh, the future will be this. We also see when we do hear about people in these future scenarios, there are often broad categories of people, so consumers, likely voters, not about individuals.

5:51And maybe this stuck out to me because I am a writer and one of the most important things in writing a story is to have individuals and characters and think about their humanity but this is you know if you think about those images of the future that you sometimes see with beautiful large buildings and some very cool public transport going around and and no actual people or maybe a couple from a long distance so you can't see who they are so that's the kind of impersonal mode that is used a lot to validate talking about the future and the last one is certainty. We face a lot of predictions about the future that tell us something is absolutely going to happen and they definitely know it. And I am going to a little bit contradict the introduction here because I think my job before you go into the rest of your rigorous and well-cited discussions today, tomorrow, and the next day, my job is to tell you to be a little bit wild in how you think

6:53about the future. I want you to remember that nobody knows. I want you to remember that it is uncertain and that those who are telling you things with certainty are the ones that you want to be the most careful and skeptical about. But I also want to talk very specifically about this issue of individuals and human agency because when we think about uncertain futures and unexpected futures, this organization is a wonderful example of that. as we just saw in the introduction this is not something that anyone would have predicted coming to this level and this stage of complexity and organization and influence in the world and here we are and why is that it's because of people it's because of a lot of individuals who came together for reasons that could not actually be quantified and made something great so I think when we don't think about human agency in the future when we don't think about people making choices for reasons that we can't predict then we

7:56lose something in how we are thinking about the future we miss things that thinking that we predicted at all so I want to remind you all as we go forward in this weekend that we are the ones who are building the future we are the ones who can decide what it is we want it to be. And so, to think about how we embrace uncertainty, which is a challenge in this time when everyone's very certain and it's very scary not to be certain about what's coming, I want to encourage you to think like science fiction writers.

8:33Again, I'm going to go out on the speculative and wild ideas. I'm going to give you an optional exercise to practice, I know you have a lot going on this weekend but consider this a fun kind of extra that you can scribble down in your spare time come up with an entry from the future when I say an entry from the future I don't mean that entry that you have been meaning to write and haven't yet no no no no no I want you to think about something that you imagine happening in the future think about it could be an event an artifact I don't to give you too many examples because I don't want to presuppose anything or seed ideas, but I do want to say please feel free to remember that this could be speculative fiction. We could, in fact, meet aliens at any point. You know, we could find a very deep cave that has a dragon in it. I'm just saying be a little bit open to things that really could happen, really could,

9:35no matter how implausible they sound. And think about, the reason that I would like you to think about framing this as an entry is because it can be really helpful to have the formal form constraints when you're thinking about this. So think about what you need to make this entry look like a Wikipedia entry. And let me tell you a little bit then about how to go forward with that. First of all, give yourselves permission to be wrong. It is okay not to know what's going to happen.

10:06is something that I had to learn as a science fiction writer it's okay to be wrong if we're not predicting the future we're making it but try to be right about the things that we do know I talked about humans and individuals what's missing from so much of the way that we're told about the future we know a lot about humans I think everyone here has probably got a lot of experience working with human quirks human relationships how humans fit together or don't what drives humans to do things and those are things that that we know are really important in how the future is going to unfold and this I think is really important in this moment of crisis Don't be afraid to be angry and write about what makes you angry. Don't be afraid to have wishful thinking, either.

10:59There's also a rhetorical push in this impersonal mode, which says we should be calm and neutral and not be guided by our emotions. But actually, emotions have been a guiding force in the way history has unfolded forever. and it is perfectly fair to think about what is driving us as both spite anger and also hope and the real desire for and belief in a better world so please consider that as you're thinking about the events that you might want to write about but also as you're thinking through all the questions this weekend and this one might be easy in a in a group like this but remember not everyone is like you when I'm as a science fiction writer writing a story all by myself I need to remember that I'm not the only person who's going to be living in this future now you have an advantage because you're part of a collective and you're used to working in a collective and you know that you need to be writing and listening and imagining for other people as well and imagine unintended

12:04consequences a pretty important one also because it makes futures feel more real because we know that things don't always happen the way we plan. Malka, can I make a proposal? Yeah. Can we take five minutes to do this right now? If you'd like. We have time. If you have the schedule. Let's be wild. We're being wild, Malka. Let's do it. We're going to be wild. So the proposal is maybe just write the first sentence or nutshell from a Wikipedia entry from the future. Remember, spite and wishful thinking. You can pick one or the other or both.

12:50So if you have something to write with you can just scroll that down or if you don't just imagine Maybe that one sentence or a nutshell from the Wikipedia entry from the future And then when you're ready turn to the person sitting next to you and have a chat about it And I'm just gonna mention again what I said about the formal constraint, okay? It's easy to come up with a Single event that you say oh this this thing is what I want to happen. You know, I want world peace. I I do I really do I think we all do so you can say oh world peace day celebrates the day when world peace started but you know when you think about a Wikipedia entry you know that you're gonna need more than that you're gonna need a little bit of background you're gonna need that summary at the top you're gonna need maybe some individuals who are involved organizations that were involved and it's the detail work of starting to go through that It leads you into what we call in science fiction world building, into actually building something plausible.

13:50The great thing about world building, about fictional world building, is that as you're building something plausible in your head that makes it possible to imagine a future where world peace happens, that also helps us see a path of actual possible steps that can take us into that future. so as you think through having these categories of what what this entry might look like that's going to help you make it a stronger piece of imagination which is also making it a stronger roadmap for how we act and if it's the spite one then you can just enjoy that's also good great so we'll take five minutes might not be enough time to build a world but build the beginnings of a headline or sentence using some of the guidance that Malka's offered.

14:39And when you're ready, have a chat about it with your neighbor. It'll take five minutes. Okay, have a chat. If you're still writing, it might be a good moment to poke your head up and have a chat with your neighbor. What'd you come up with? Okay, take a minute to finish up your last thought. Okay, let's reconvene.

15:23If you can hear my voice, clap once. If you can hear my voice, clap twice. If you can hear my voice clap three times. Put your hand up if you heard a Wikipedia entry from the future that was particularly spiteful or hopeful or wild. All the hands went down all of a sudden. These are very serious people. Can you tell us about your Wikipedia entry? Everybody's going to hate me, but let me know. No, no, no, no. My Wikipedia entry is the end of the American empire and the emergence of a new world order that is a collective. Yes, thank you. Yeah. Love it. Thank you very much. Perfect. Thank you. Who else heard a Wikipedia entry that was particularly wild?

16:21It's not wild, but it fits to the last entry because my Wikipedia entry is called The Book of Circles, and The Book of Circles is a handbook about how to practically support and sustain small collectives of people during hard times, and it was invented in 2026 and spread wildly, became a symbol of togetherness and the spread of a network of self-organized communities worldwide. beautiful that is something that needs to exist thank you for imagining Malka that seems like a perfect segue for you it does although I really want to hear the rest of them I I I think I'm not gonna tell you all how to spend your time but I can't imagine a small a really tiny little globe that had Wikipedia of the future where we could put up some of these entries and have them available for people to browse and add to so just i'll wish that into existence um thank you all that was

17:23incredible and um it was wonderful to see how much engagement and energy you put into that i'm just going to remind you all again one more time although i think based on that exercise you well have it, that the future is not under any of our control. But it is something that we contribute to. It is not something where we know what's going to happen, but we do all have, and I think this group particularly, we have a ton of experience improvising collectively in a community to respond to what comes.

17:55So we don't have to be afraid of the uncertainty. We can still prepare. We can still think about what we want and build towards that. And being human-centered, intentional, inclusive, and having information that comes from that place is so important in helping us to build the futures that we want. Thank you very much. Good luck this weekend in building those futures, and I look forward to seeing what happens. Thank you so much, Malka. Thank you.

Source and licence

Recording: File:FR2 - Keynote Collectively Defining the Future of Knowledge.webm by KSG Events (2026-01-30), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. The transcript, summary and chapters on this page are shared under the same licence (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The transcript is machine speech-to-text by the TidyTools Audio & video transcriber; the summary, key points and chapters were written by Claude from that transcript. Both may contain errors: check the recording before quoting it.