Science fiction is valuable for its freedom to conduct thought-experiments which illuminate our present by showing us possible futures. As I’ve said before, utopias beckon us along a particular path while dystopias hold up warning signs saying, “Wrong way – go back.”
Conflict develops character and drives narrative so there are strong literary reasons for the preponderance of dystopias (nuclear war, pandemic, climate collapse, etc – choose your own disaster!). That can be depressing but at least the best of them do point to ways to avoid whatever crisis they describe. The Ministry for the Future, in fact, aims to do exactly that.
William Gibson has done as much as any other SF writer (any other writer in any genre, in fact) to look into the future we’re creating but he’s not very optimistic. Here is a good introduction to his work for those who don’t know it, and here is my review of his Jackpot Trilogy.
All my other book reviews are listed on this page but for some years now I’ve also been sharing brief notes about environmental SF as ‘Comments’ on various articles. This page brings them together.
