A poll for science fiction masses

[kinzel]

As someone who went to Clarion West thirty five years ago I'm participating in this years Clarion West Write-a-Thon ... see my page at: http://www.clarionwest.org/events/writeathon/SteveMiller

alas, my stated goal is to write a new near-future science fiction story and now it turns out that the phrase "near future" creates different expectations for different people. So, I need help figuring out what's near future. I also hear that all near future sf "should be mundane" but ... I dunno.

What's your take:

[Poll #1209566]

Comments

[hacksoncode.livejournal.com]

"Proper" subject matter can be almost anything, if properly framed.

I think the basic idea is that "near future" SF should restrict *Earth-based* technology, cultures, mores, politics, etc. to what can be reasonably expected to evolve within the next 50 years or so, based on science and the world we know today, and which would be easily recognizable as such by most people.

Also, I marked down elves, etc., because you specified *science fiction* and I consider those to be fantasy elements unless there's a *really* good explanation for them. If considering the broader range of "speculative fiction" that kind of stuff fits. And I marked down global warming because current science doesn't support it having enough of an impact in the next 50 years to make a particularly interesting story. That doesn't mean a story about what humans might do *in spite* of that would be out of bounds. Could be quite interesting, actually.

What aliens might be able/want to do is another question. What we could reasonably do if presented with adequate motivation might be expected to surprise people, so there's considerably flexibility there.