London-Is it possible to a space made of our imagination and fantasies to visualize our future in stories of science fiction for what could happen in Iraq within the 100 coming years?

Comma Press publishing house has launched a creative writing project, in which it called Iraqi writers to write 10 short stories inspired by the history and significance of 10 Iraqi cities and regions, and what will happen in them in 2103, 100 years after the U.S. invasion and the sectarian, political, and terrorist incidents that followed it.

How would people be? Will they enjoy stability and safety? Would they witness changes in their values, lifestyles, and their knowledge and behavioral spaces? How would the accelerated scientific and technological developments affect them?

We don’t expect to receive certain answers based on a real perspective for all these questions, which require massive imaginative views with modern lingual, civilized, and architectural information that conform to the future.

This project is an appeal to encourage people on anticipating how the future can be based on what we have today away from recalling the past or seeking negative emotions, sufferance, and tears. This initiative aims at giving the Iraqi writers a chance to express the events of today through future vision of science fictional-type featuring ideas, characters, colors, names, and details on modern living.

The book Iraq (+100) has been published in English and is expected to be released as an electronic Arabic version soon. Ten Iraqi writers have contributed to it, including novelist Ali Bader and Hassan Blasim, who considered that the Arab world lacks this kind of books because of the absence of innovation and the focus on political criticism and international meddling.

We cannot deny that some of the historic writings chose science-fiction as a main theme; So this types of books should be developed and spread through technological advancement amid the change of the era’s language and its tool of expression.

According to Blasim, novels may be transformed into a video game in the future. Therefore, he considered that this project will gather them as Iraqis after they forgot the meaning of unity.

Then, would digital programs and apps be alternatives for the traditional paper book? Is it necessary to change the tools of literary expression to convey the change of time?