Kieran Tranter, Living in Technical Legality: Science Fiction and Law as Technology, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018, pp. 242

On 15 November 2020, the crewed SpaceX Dragon capsule ‘Resilience’ was launched on a mission to the International Space Station. Stowed away on that mission was a plush toy of “The Child” (as he was then known, although his true name was soon to be revealed as “Grogu”) from the Disney series The Mandalorian.1 At a crucial moment, The Child was released from the seat harness and allowed to drift free inside the capsule as the official microgravity indicator. Unsurprisingly, this moment in space history captured the hearts and minds of those watching, loving the merger of science fiction with science fact, with a small number of curmudgeons bemoaning the fact that the Baby Yoda reveal may have just overshadowed the truly historic achievement of the successful SpaceX crewed mission to the ISS. In any event, this moment demonstrates the strong emotional connection between science fiction and technology and the role science fiction can play in engaging people with science and technology, achievements which may otherwise remain well outside their sphere of interest. The selection of “The Child” as the microgravity indicator was a deliberate choice by the crew of the Resilience. Just as the name of the spacecraft Resilience had been chosen to reflect a major achievement in a year of pandemic and to inspire and encourage hope, so too The Child was chosen to bring joy in a time of uncertainty and fear: