In this concise and accessible book, writer and engineer Jenn Stroud Rossmann argues that we need to upgrade the “engineering imagination”. By interrogating engineering’s history and storytelling traditions, she reveals how we could better understand and anticipate the impacts and implications of new technology, and better envision alternative futures. Far from being a merely technical science, engineering has been shaped—and can be revolutionised—by the ways that we talk about the history of technology, how art and literature portray scientists and technologists, and the ways that we pass on knowledge through education.

Drawing upon sources as varied as literature, poetry, visual art, and film as well as history, theory, philosophy, and the technicalities of science, Worldbuilding is a guide to thoughtful technological citizenship for makers and users alike.