How To Use Sci-Fi To Live A Life Worth Living

For better or worse, the future is coming — and we can use sci-fi to ensure it is a future we want to be a part of

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I am a big fan of sci-fi. Honestly, it has been less than a decade since I’ve realised this is one of my favourite genres. As a kid, I had never read books or watched shows that could be classed as sci-fi, but I had always enjoyed — as it seems now obvious — the sci-fi elements of my favourite sources of entertainment.

After having properly dived into the genre for the past seven years or so, I spot two main branches: present-bound sci-fi and truly-futuristic sci-fi. This may sound slightly strange, since the vast majority of science fiction is set in the future, whether near or far, but, like anyone well versed in the genre, I’ve found that the present- or future-centric nature of the work isn’t really determined by the point in time in which the action is set but by the point in time in which the work was written.

For instance, most stories written in the 1940s and 1950s, even those set millennia into the future, deal with the horrors of authoritarian regimes that claim some sort of racial supremacy over others.

There is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is rather ingenious: by getting rid of the…