Scots like Iain N. Banks and Ken MacLeod lead in a futuristic tradition, for from MacDonald, Barrie, and Stevenson onwards, Scots have been speculating in ways derived from their unique circumstances: lacking political power, they imagine future spaces and different places-with a twist. Nineteenth-century thermodynamics (theorized in Scotland), Celtic Otherworlds, and a Scotland always on the "other side" of history open unusual futures for Mitchison, Spark, Lindsay, Mitchell, MadDiarmid, Morgan, Crumey, Fitt, and Gray.