Random

80 readers

1 users here now

If you have a random question, thought, want to share something cool, or want to vent, this is the place to do it.

Mark NSFW, no misinformation, no spam, and no bigotry.

founded 7 months ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Have you ever noticed how scifi settings over time have trended to be less distant in the future (lemmy.blahaj.zone)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

10 comments fedilink hide all child comments

i was thinking maybe we're more optimistic about how fast society can advance than in the past and thats being reflected in our media. like Asimov stuff vs star trek vs cyberpunk, bladerunner, type stuff being set like 50-100 years from now instead of like, the year 3000+. maybe im wrong

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

People predicted that we'd have moon colonies by now and even be mostly on the way to making Mars ones. Instead, we basically gave up and now pay billionaires to go to space while making fun of and snubbing our favorite icons like William Shatner.

The idea that we even want to go to space is dead, at least in political terms. Irl, we get to be slaves until the earth ends within our lifetimes, making us dream of like socialism or at least less cost gouging in our near future. No wonder we turn to fantasy settings like LOTR and Harry Potter rather than sci-fi - the former is fun but the latter becomes increasingly depressing when you try to mesh futuristic technology with what we know of human morality today.

Tbf, the dream is not dead, it's just... postponed for awhile while we sort things out on earth.