# Useful Fiction — Full Content for LLMs

## About

Useful Fiction LLC works at the intersection of strategic narrative, foresight, and change management. The firm helps organizations tell their most important stories about the future through fiction grounded in research — a method known as FICINT (fictional intelligence). Decision-makers are more likely to sit up and listen if future threats and opportunities are presented in a gripping story rather than a plodding report.

The company was co-founded by **August Cole** (best-selling co-author of Ghost Fleet and Burn-In, former Wall Street Journal defense reporter, Atlantic Council fellow) and **Peter W. Singer** (best-selling author, strategist at New America, professor, and one of TIME magazine's top global thinkers).

Useful Fiction is a network of creators, thinkers, and artists. Projects bring together best-selling writers, former leaders of U.S. military services, technology forecasters, film/TV/video-game creators, and graphic designers — all sharing the purpose of exploring and explaining new or complex ideas through the power of the oldest communications technology of all: story.

## Methodology — Why Useful Fiction works

Our methodology has four interlocking parts:

1. **Understanding.** Stories are how humans process complex information. A well-crafted scenario translates technical detail (cyber, AI, autonomy, biotech, space) into something a non-specialist leader can understand and remember.

2. **Action.** Decisions get made when people feel the stakes. Fiction turns abstract risks ("near-peer adversary capability gap") into visceral, specific moments that prompt action.

3. **Connection.** Useful Fiction projects build shared mental models across silos — operators, engineers, policy staff, and leadership end up with the same reference points and the same vocabulary.

4. **Change Management.** Story is the most effective tool we have for changing institutional culture. By showing what a future organization could look like — what it values, how it operates, who succeeds in it — fiction makes change feel possible and desirable.

## Services (What We Do)

- **FICINT writing & scenarios** — original short fiction commissioned for governments, militaries, intelligence agencies, and corporations to dramatize specific futures.
- **Workshops & wargaming narratives** — narrative scaffolding for tabletop exercises, scenario planning, and strategic foresight sessions.
- **Visual storytelling** — graphic novellas, illustrations, and concept art that accompany written scenarios.
- **Speaking & briefings** — keynotes and executive briefings on strategic narrative, FICINT, and emerging tech futures.
- **Mentored projects** — multi-month engagements where Useful Fiction trains in-house teams to produce their own strategic fiction.

## Notable works and clients

- **Ghost Fleet** (2015, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) — by P.W. Singer & August Cole. A novel about a future U.S.–China–Russia war that became required reading on multiple military reading lists; cited as influencing real procurement and doctrine decisions.
- **Burn-In: A Novel of the Real Robotic Revolution** (2020) — by Singer & Cole. Explores the future of AI and automation in U.S. society.
- **Stories from Tomorrow** — a U.S. Army-commissioned anthology of FICINT vignettes.
- **Defense One column** — recurring strategic fiction column.
- Commissioned scenarios for: U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps (including MCOE), NATO, allied defense ministries, the U.S. intelligence community, defense primes, and Fortune 500 technology firms.

## Team

- **Managing Partners:** August Cole, Peter W. Singer
- **Core team, advisory group, and contributors:** A rotating roster of novelists, screenwriters, illustrators, former flag officers, technologists, and futurists. Full list at https://useful-fiction.com/about-us

## Coverage and recognition

Useful Fiction's work has been covered by NPR ("the power of story to carry across real-world lessons"), Wired, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Defense One, GovExec, and many defense and policy publications. Full media list at https://useful-fiction.com/in-the-media

## Contact

Project inquiries and partnerships: https://useful-fiction.com/contact

## Site map

- https://useful-fiction.com/
- https://useful-fiction.com/why-useful
- https://useful-fiction.com/why-useful/understanding
- https://useful-fiction.com/why-useful/action
- https://useful-fiction.com/why-useful/connection
- https://useful-fiction.com/why-useful/change-management
- https://useful-fiction.com/what-we-do
- https://useful-fiction.com/portfolio
- https://useful-fiction.com/proven-impact
- https://useful-fiction.com/in-the-media
- https://useful-fiction.com/about-us
- https://useful-fiction.com/contact
- https://useful-fiction.com/event-photos
- https://useful-fiction.com/zoom-backgrounds