Do you think contemporary science fi imagines any truly novel ideas for the future, or does it retread the same ideas from Roddenberry, Asimov, and Clarke?
My worry is that we used to imagine a future that eventually came true, but we've stopped the process of imagining the future.
What are the big ideas now? AI, exploring Mars, transhumanism? These are all old ideas.
I understand. I believe there is quite a lot of evidence that there are genuinely new ideas emerging today—especially around computation, networks, health, and sheer scale—many of which couldn’t have existed in mid-20th-century science fiction.
But many of our deepest visions of the future were first imagined decades and even centuries ago through science fiction, art, and mythology long before the technology to realize them existed.
Old ideas that we’re still bringing to fruition.
We’re not done imagining the future—we’re still in the middle of realizing it. AI, space exploration, man vs. machine aren’t “stale” ideas; they’re the next chapter of humanity’s shared mythology that is only now coming to fruition.
What do you look forward to
I look forward to a lot of things—far too many to list here—but a few that come immediately to mind are transhumanism, cyborgs, better and less invasive healthcare, personal AI-driven robot assistants, and infrastructure that actually protects life and the planet—see-through barriers that preserve natural scenery while keeping animals off roadways and preventing vehicles from leaving bridges or crossing medians.
I also look forward to deeper forms of continuity—AI that can carry a person forward. Today, models can already scan emails, writing, videos, and other digital traces to form an approximation of someone. That’s interesting, but it’s still surface-level.
I imagine something deeper—implanted or wearable systems that can capture patterns beneath expression: dreams, fears, ambitions, those quieter synaptic firings that never quite make it to language.
The result wouldn’t just be an archive or a chatbot, but a much higher-fidelity, near one-to-one AI representation of a person that could live on—for their loved ones, and for the world.
And of course… the Holodeck.
Any recommended books with big new ideas? Im looking for my next read.
