After plugging away at it for four years, I FINALLY submitted my PhD thesis late last night.
TL;DR, it’s about the role of contemporary science fiction as a kind of model, whether that’s technology companies using it as a blueprint for commercial ventures or texts acting as a more critical tool for understanding and stress testing systems. I made a case for the latter.
When you’re writing about current stuff, there’s this sense that the ground is shifting beneath you. The final edit was not only about making my argument come together, but also adding references to the latest real-world events, forecasts, and valuations, as well as books and articles that hadn’t been written when I started out. There’s so much great work being done in this area, and I was still reading it right up to the deadline.
Throughout the thesis, I left notes to myself in places that might need updates. Comments on the speculative bubble in Generative AI from a few years ago stayed. But the projections for data center energy consumption shifted: from reaching the equivalent of the Netherlands’ current usage (~116 TWh) by 2027, to Japan’s usage (~945 TWh) by 2030. That’s the difference between a 2023 study and the IEA’s 2025 report. Even that second – alarming – figure is probably out of date.
At the same time, the things I was most critical of have gotten more pronounced. On the day of the SpaceX IPO, Elon Musk said the company’s mission is to “take the fiction out of science fiction”. He was (briefly) made a trillionaire off the back of it. Science-fictional narratives are now the basis of IPO prospectuses, “AGI” announcements, and any number of other far-fetched claims.
The thing I found myself coming back to time and time again is that – whatever it’s about – sf’s fictional nature isn’t something you can just remove. Literature plays host to many voices, which often contradict one another. It asks difficult questions and offers only partial answers. Losing sight of that makes people mistake warnings as invitations to explore. Or constantly talk about The Terminator, rather than addressing the problems that AI-based tools are already causing.
For various boring reasons my viva won’t be until February. Who knows what will have happened by then? But one thing is certain: once it’s done I will INSIST that you call me Dr Burrow.
