
The New Abnormal Marie Roussie 'Future of Conflicts: A Vision of What Is to Come'
Jan 21, 2026
Marie Roussie, a futurist and researcher with Making Tomorrow known for using science fiction to inform military foresight. She discusses the NATO study coding 100 foresight reports. Conversations cover institutional science fiction, tech tunnel vision around AI/cyber/surveillance, overlooked technologies and environments, and the need to heed weak signals and broaden systems thinking.
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How A PhD Began With A Sci Fi Red Team Experiment
- Marie's PhD came from being invited to join an experiment where sci-fi writers produced scenarios for the French armed forces' Red Team Defense.
- She embedded with writers, military and scientists to study how institutional science fiction is produced on demand.
Tech Convergence Around AI Cyber Surveillance
- Foresight reports show a strong technological convergence with AI, cyber, and surveillance listed by >70% of reports as pivotal for future conflict.
- Despite events like the 2022 Ukraine war and AI advances, the corpus kept stable tech priorities and many niche techs remained marginal.
Tunnel Vision Hinders Cross Domain Thinking
- Analysts found pervasive tunnel vision: technologies are treated in isolation with few reports linking tech impacts across sectors or civilian uses.
- Marie warns this siloed approach misses cross-domain effects like social, material, or health tech impacts on operations.
