I thought the exact same thing reading this -- this sort of science fiction prototyping reminds me of the kind of Scenario Planning practiced initially by Royal Dutch Shell, GE, and various militaries. GBN had a big business doing futures work for Fortune 100 companies for quite some time. This kind of engagement is pretty high-end business strategy work, but can be very compelling to a leadership team or a board that is working on long-term planning.

Clearly articulated potential futures can help large companies identify signals that a particular future is coming to pass or plan responses should that scenario become true.

In a world where technology seems to be "disrupting" almost every industry, it makes sense to me that science fiction futures would be especially relevant.