Has any science fiction writer ever announced that he or she has given up writing in that genre because technological progress has pretty much ended?
Because if you think about it, the idea of sending someone to the moon has gone from science fiction to a brief technological reality ~ 45 years ago back to science fiction again.
Science fiction is about imaging how the future would look like and not essentially about space travel.
Bruce Sterling even managed to write science fiction that happens at the same year it’s written with Zeitgeist.
It’s a quite good book. It manages to name Osama Bin Ladin as a significant player even through it’s written in 1999 (and published a year later). It also features the NSA and how they manage to wiretap everything in the world.
Technological progress also hasn’t ended. 20 years ago flying drones bringing your packages to your door step was science fiction and today Amazon rolls out field trials where they do that.
Given how technology prices change the costs of bugging equipment sinks fast. Cheap bugging that can be deployed by individuals features a role in Bruce Sterling’s Distraction. The book also looks at a gene-manipulated guy who lives in a country where gene manipulation is outlawed and as a result he can’t run for office.
There plenty of technology and change to be written about. Apart from that the future is “Old people in cities who are afraid of the sky”.
Has any science fiction writer ever announced that he or she has given up writing in that genre because technological progress has pretty much ended?
Charlie Stross has expressed disappointment that technological change hasn’t been as rapid as he hoped for in the mid 1990s, but that’s a very different claim. I don’t think anyone has claimed that progress has stopped completely, and it would be very strange to do so. Yes, the specific technologies involved in space travel have not progressed much but even in those areas progress is still occurring: the rise of cubesats and private rockets, the spread of highly accurate civilian GPS, the ability to send long-lived rovers to other planets—these are all advances in the last 20 years.
Outside space issues, there’s been big jumps in technology- the most obvious changes have been (and continue to be) in the computer related fields (e.g. cheap smart phones, rise of big data, general increase in computer power level, drastic reductions in bandwith cost) but there have also been major improvements in other fields.
I could continue with other fields but the general trend is clear: progress may be occurring slowly but technological progress is still definitely going on.
Haven’t heard about such an accident. Why do you ask?
Can’t figure how the second paragraph demonstrates that technological progress has ended (by the way, do you mean it stopped or it really reached its logical conclusion?). Rather, it illustrates its ever more rapid pace. And that might be a problem for science fiction: where formerly readers were excited to read fiction about strange new things that science could bring in the future, nowadays they are rather overwhelmed with the strange new things they already have, and afraid and unwilling to look into the future; it’s not that the science fiction cannot show it. Charles Stross has written about it (don’t have the exact link; sorry)
nowadays they are rather overwhelmed with the strange new things they already have, and afraid and unwilling to look into the future
It might also have to do with the fact that cheery SF utopias are out of fashion at the moment and the dark and depressive dystopias are rather more prevalent.
You many note a general shift away from space opera towards biology and computer technology inspired storylines. But even that being said, why should the direction reality is going affect the direction of speculative fiction?
But even that being said, why should the direction reality is going affect the direction of speculative fiction?
That depends on what you consider the goal of science fiction to be. If it’s about discussing technnological trends then the direction of reality matters.
Has any science fiction writer ever announced that he or she has given up writing in that genre because technological progress has pretty much ended?
Because if you think about it, the idea of sending someone to the moon has gone from science fiction to a brief technological reality ~ 45 years ago back to science fiction again.
Science fiction is about imaging how the future would look like and not essentially about space travel.
Bruce Sterling even managed to write science fiction that happens at the same year it’s written with Zeitgeist. It’s a quite good book. It manages to name Osama Bin Ladin as a significant player even through it’s written in 1999 (and published a year later). It also features the NSA and how they manage to wiretap everything in the world.
Technological progress also hasn’t ended. 20 years ago flying drones bringing your packages to your door step was science fiction and today Amazon rolls out field trials where they do that.
Given how technology prices change the costs of bugging equipment sinks fast. Cheap bugging that can be deployed by individuals features a role in Bruce Sterling’s Distraction. The book also looks at a gene-manipulated guy who lives in a country where gene manipulation is outlawed and as a result he can’t run for office.
There plenty of technology and change to be written about. Apart from that the future is “Old people in cities who are afraid of the sky”.
Charlie Stross has expressed disappointment that technological change hasn’t been as rapid as he hoped for in the mid 1990s, but that’s a very different claim. I don’t think anyone has claimed that progress has stopped completely, and it would be very strange to do so. Yes, the specific technologies involved in space travel have not progressed much but even in those areas progress is still occurring: the rise of cubesats and private rockets, the spread of highly accurate civilian GPS, the ability to send long-lived rovers to other planets—these are all advances in the last 20 years.
Outside space issues, there’s been big jumps in technology- the most obvious changes have been (and continue to be) in the computer related fields (e.g. cheap smart phones, rise of big data, general increase in computer power level, drastic reductions in bandwith cost) but there have also been major improvements in other fields.
Let’s look at medicine. HIV used to be a death sentence and now the life expectancy of people in much of the developed world with HIV is close to that of the general population. Death rates from various cancers continue to decline. Many tests are faster and more reliable. You seem implicitly to be using a 45 year time window, but in either a 45 or a 20 year time window, these advances are pretty clearcut.
I could continue with other fields but the general trend is clear: progress may be occurring slowly but technological progress is still definitely going on.
Haven’t heard about such an accident. Why do you ask?
Can’t figure how the second paragraph demonstrates that technological progress has ended (by the way, do you mean it stopped or it really reached its logical conclusion?). Rather, it illustrates its ever more rapid pace. And that might be a problem for science fiction: where formerly readers were excited to read fiction about strange new things that science could bring in the future, nowadays they are rather overwhelmed with the strange new things they already have, and afraid and unwilling to look into the future; it’s not that the science fiction cannot show it. Charles Stross has written about it (don’t have the exact link; sorry)
It might also have to do with the fact that cheery SF utopias are out of fashion at the moment and the dark and depressive dystopias are rather more prevalent.
Why should they?
You many note a general shift away from space opera towards biology and computer technology inspired storylines. But even that being said, why should the direction reality is going affect the direction of speculative fiction?
That depends on what you consider the goal of science fiction to be. If it’s about discussing technnological trends then the direction of reality matters.