Has Sci-Fi Run Out of Steam?

Barence writes "Science fiction has long inspired real-world technology, but are the authors of sci-fi stories finally running out of steam? PC Pro has traced the history of sci-fi's influence on real-world technology, from Jules Verne to Snow Crash, but suggests that writers have run out of ideas when it comes to inspiring tomorrow's products. 'Since Snow Crash, no novel has had quite the same impact on the computing world, and you might argue that sci-fi and hi-tech are drifting further apart,' PC Pro claims. Author Charles Stross tells the magazine that he began writing a sci-fi novel in 2005 and 'made some predictions, thinking that in ten years they'd either be laughable or they'd have come true. The weird bit? Most of them came true already, by 2009.'"

Comments

Re:Sci-fi not predicting far enough?

[hey!]

I only agree partially. There seems to be a sense that "anything goes" in fantasy, and I think we're on the same page on that.

As for fantasy being sci-fi with "magic" substituted for "technology"; I disagree, but I recognize we can define the categories any way we want. If there is a *meaningful* and *useful* distinction between them, then I think there has to be a difference other than how we label things we don't know how to do in *our* world. That doesn't mean that anything goes in fantasy, it means that the rules are different.

As an extreme example, consider fairy tales. If you have three sons who set out to fulfill a task and the first two fail, the third *must* succeed. He is also expected to do things in a certain different way. The third son is not only "virtuous", his key attribute is open-mindedness. It is an absolute, firm rule that he must be open minded where his brothers are closed minded. He must attempt the way they think impossible; he must accept the advice they reject; he must face what they ignore, be it a strange little man by the side of the road, or the ogre in his lair. It's absolutely, positively *necessary*.

In my view, a true fantasy has to have these kinds of constraints, although they may not be as well established by tradition as the third son succeeds rule.