NEW SCIENTIST in association with SCI-FI-LONDON hosts a series of short films and discussions about why stories, games and falsehoods may be our best guide to tomorrow.

Fantasy is taking over the future. The wildest and most outlandish stories are slipping through the screens, cabinets and wall-spaces of our most treasured institutions and into the streets and squares of the real world.

Hosted by New Scientist's culture editor Simon Ings and introduced with a keynote by multi-award winning science fiction writer Alastair Reynolds, this packed afternoon of short films and discussions explores how stories, games and falsehoods are guiding us towards an uncertain tomorrow.

Curators Robert Devcic, Doug Millard and TK lead us through a bizarre world of unreal exhibits -- objects and films and documents that purport to be from future times and unreal places. These mock-ups are meant to entertain, baffle and provoke us -- but what happens when we can no longer tell the difference between them and the real thing?

In the company of Pat Kane, Meg Jayanth and Shrinking Space we explore the fun and games to be had in making up and playing the future. Can we ever ready ourselves for the unexpected? And might the games we play now lead us into making the wrong choices in the future?

And Georgina Voss, Paul Graham Raven, Rachel Armstrong and (via Skype) Regina Pedszus, will help us discover how mock-ups, simulations and rehearsals are bearing on the real world, and making science fiction real.

Interspersed with short films, video art and live readings, New Scientist's afternoon at Sci Fi London will take science fiction off the screen and jam it under your skin.

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