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Why I love Sci-Fi


noghiri

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I love Sci-Fi because I love the future.
While much of Sci-Fi is often outside what is possible given our current understanding of physics, it explores the problems and advantages of technology, much of which is already nearly within our grasp -- or even exists today.
For example, let us take the classic novel Neuromancer.  It details the story of a washed-out hacker no longer able to connect to the internet, who suddenly has this block removed -- provided he works for a shadowy employer.
In it, there is clothing that bends light around a person (Japanese scientists made one four or five years ago), augmented reality (Similar to Hololens, but better -- we'll have this in 10 years or so), direct input from EEG into computers (We already have this on a fairly basic level), video feed sent directly to the brain (We have this, too!).  The full spread of technology doesn't exist yet, true, but much of it does, at least partially.  Exploring where it could be in a few years can be quite fascinating.
It also explores human nature.  In John Ringo's Legacy of the Aldenata series, he explores how humanity responds to threats as a group, trust, panic, and how people handle pressure.  Sure, it's couched in the story of billions of quadrupedal alligators intent on eating the universe, but to assume this makes up the entirety of the flesh of the book is to far underestimate the writing and thought put into it.

While other genres can examine the latter, they cannot examine the former without becoming science fiction.  Science fiction can also examine the interaction between human nature and psychology, and the new technologies that are just beginning to exist now or are right around the corner.

 

Scifi is cool.

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"It's couched in the story of billions of quadrupedal alligators intent on eating the universe."

Surely that's like saying "bipedal humans?"

That or I've being paying less attention at the zoo than I thought.

l405G.jpg

 

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