FDL in Fast Company

Last summer, in a nondescript meeting room in a fluorescent-lit office park in Silicon Valley, a group of computer and planetary scientists were given the problem of deciding what to do with an asteroid on a collision course with Earth.

The group–split into teams representing different world leaders, scientists, and citizens with different ideas of how to deal with impending doom–proposed solutions to the theoretical threat. Role-playing wasn’t necessary, but a Brazilian astronomer did his best Russian leader impression and tried to cajole the others.