Yet none of this means that we should, or that we can, give up in our attempts to steer the juggernaut. The minimising of high-consequence risks transcends all values and all exclusionary divisions of power. "History" is not on our side, has no teleology, and supplies us with no guarantees. But the heavily counterfactual nature of future-oriented thought, an essential element of the reflexivity of modernity, has positive as well as negative implications. For we can envisage alternative futures whose very propagation might help them be realised. What is needed is the creation of models of Utopian realism.

SEED: The idea of 'Utopian realism' — that propagating imagined futures makes them more likely to be realized — is a compelling angle for an essay on agency, hope, and social change in the face of existential risk.

Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Moderni…, loc. 365