Where does Sci Fi go from here

[Stewart Hotston]

I've been pondering a number of the discussions here about questions science can't answer, about the recent favourite subjects of writers (such as black holes, time travel and the recent vogue of body alteration and the singularity).

It got me thinking, what are the big subjects that people think are going to govern the genre in the near future?

I recently read Three Body Problem and the Water Knife. Two very different stories at the very opposite edges of Sci Fi but both refreshing explorations of big questions that others haven't really covered yet.

I'll start us off. I think the nature of information is going to be a big topic. I think that recent philosophy of physics/information theory is leading us down the road of understanding that information is a very real thing in its own right and that information space is, consequently, something with a substance that may be independent of our 'creation' of the concept. If that's so, I think there's LOTS of interesting stories to be told there.

Anyone else? If you think that there are already trends out there that you think are interesting that would be cool to hear about too.

 

[Boneman]

Ready Player One? Though its heroes are teens, it's an inward (ie games consoles etc) looking scifi. Armada, wasn't as good, but the success of these will probably establish a trend for a while.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Genetics. CRISPR is going to be the metaphor of this century I think.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

CRISPR

Okay, I have to ask: what's CRISPR? Potato-related genetics?

 

[Stephen Palmer]

There was a slightly scary Horizon documentary on CRISPR a year or so ago. Worth a watch.

 

[Gonk the Insane]

Well, that's just terrifying (but also kind of fascinating). I reckon there's a disturbing SF book that will give people nightmares for weeks in there somewhere

 

[Vertigo]

Never mind science fiction, I've thought for a while that the next great named 'age' (as in age of steam etc.) will be the age of genetics. I'd expect to see the actual future including much of the following and therefore SF to also contain it (and of course much SF already does).

Genetic enhancement (strength, intelligence etc.)
Cosmetic genetics
Artificial (if that's the right word) life. That is living cells with DNA designed completely from scratch as opposed to modifying existing DNA.

That last is, I think, particularly interesting (if somewhat less dramatic than the other two); it will, I think, lead to microbes that will manufacture most of our basic chemical resources, from oil to plastics to 'synthetic' meat/protein. I would also expect this to lead to a massive increase and change in computing and other technology with the development of biotech. Really there is little limit to the possibilities.

SF loves to talk about nano tech; for example tiny machines that roam our bodies fixing illnesses etc. But why go to all that trouble to construct nano machines when new microbes can be designed and grown far more easily to do the same sort of jobs?

 

[Stewart Hotston]

I think the question of the century will be 'what makes a person'. Not in the 'is Data a real person' kind of way, but in terms of what is consciousness, intelligence, agency and how much change can you make to it and still be human?

@Vertigo I thin that's pretty interesting, splicing and editing is going to be interesting although we're getting a sense (from my understanding at least and that is pretty skewed by my fascination with network theory) that the genetic code is a multi-layered system rather than a code like a computer code and that it has meaning at numerous scales which means that we're really very much at the beginning of understanding what and how the genetic sequencing of our bodies really works.

I like the microbial slant too - I'm always morbidly shocked when I remember that roughly 40% of our biomass is already microbial in nature. Adding t that through deliberate intervention is fertile ground for changing what it means to be us.

 

[hitmouse]

I think the question of the century will be 'what makes a person'. Not in the 'is Data a real person' kind of way, but in terms of what is consciousness, intelligence, agency and how much change can you make to it and still be human?

@Vertigo
I like the microbial slant too - I'm always morbidly shocked when I remember that roughly 40% of our biomass is already microbial in nature.

Not quite. It is true to say that we carry far more individual bacterial cells on our epithelial surfaces than there are human cells inour bodies. However these are tiny and their combined mass is far less than 40% of human body weight.

 

[Stewart Hotston]

You're quite correct, it's the number of cells rather than their mass!

As I understand it, although there's a vast margin for variance, Nature had a paper in January this year suggesting a mean of 1.3:1 which in itself was a busting of the 10:1 myth that had persisted for decades.

The paper itself can be found here

 

[russ2]

Never mind science fiction, I've thought for a while that the next great named 'age' (as in age of steam etc.) will be the age of genetics. I'd expect to see the actual future including much of the following and therefore SF to also contain it (and of course much SF already does).

Genetic enhancement (strength, intelligence etc.)
Cosmetic genetics
Artificial (if that's the right word) life. That is living cells with DNA designed completely from scratch as opposed to modifying existing DNA.

That last is, I think, particularly interesting (if somewhat less dramatic than the other two); it will, I think, lead to microbes that will manufacture most of our basic chemical resources, from oil to plastics to 'synthetic' meat/protein. I would also expect this to lead to a massive increase and change in computing and other technology with the development of biotech. Really there is little limit to the possibilities.

SF loves to talk about nano tech; for example tiny machines that roam our bodies fixing illnesses etc. But why go to all that trouble to construct nano machines when new microbes can be designed and grown far more easily to do the same sort of jobs?

Will we call this sub genre' 'Genepunk'?