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

[sambear.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking about the audio novel "South Coast" by Nathan Lowell, which has gone nearly 20 chapters now without one bit of what would normally be considered science fiction trappings. It's about a fishing concern on an ocean-rich planet, and the challenges of the people who work the fishing boats. The trappings side of thing are:

1.) Rapid prototyping / template construction
2.) Higher than normal tech scanning capability (imaging for fish)
3.) An amazingly robust and potent wireless information network
4.) Quick knit medical tech for bones
5.) Anti-grav pallets and "flitters"

But most of the stuff in the story is just about plain folks doing fishing and getting into trouble, plus a natural Shamanistic side to the protagonist and his father. This is not "woo woo" magic but more like "skeptical" magic: it could be explained either way.

The mundane part is that it's everyday life. Not princes, kings, potentates, galaxies exploding, time stopping and reversing, no sentient black holes. It's just these folks dealing with fish. I like it.

http://durandus.org/golden/