Using Possible-Worlds Fiction to Mediate Knowledge Production in the Exact Sciences: Different worlds and different lives in Nina Allen’s science fiction

The seeming acceleration of knowledge production in the exact and natural sciences brings with it an inevitable shift in humanity’s sense of our relation to the world and to the universe. In 1992, for instance, the existence of three exoplanets had been recorded – as of October 2021, nearly 5000 have been catalogued. Moreover, spectrometry enables burgeoning discussion about habitability and exobiology, discussions which while theoretical, become acute in relation to our roles as failed caretakers of our own planet. This paper will examine the ways in which possible-worlds fiction participates in this re-navigation, using the SF novels of contemporary British author Nina Allen. Allen’s fictional worlds are not fully-fledged alternate universes, but, just like all those exoplanets, remain possibilities just out of reach even within the novels. Nonetheless, knowledge (even theoretical) of these possible worlds is a catalyst to radical shifts in characters’ sense of being-in-the-world. I will explore what lessons can be learned from these renegotiations for our relationship with current scientific knowledge production.