I'm thinking about writing a novel set about sixty years from now. I do not intend it to be sci-fi or futurist.
Nonetheless, it seems that I won't be able to avoid at least touching upon the technologies of the time period. So how do I do that without turning my book into sci-fi genre fiction or creating fictitious technologies that will appear very silly in a decade or two (not to mention to people living sixty years from now)?
Pic somewhat related.
>>7360893
just vaguely describe them, dont try to give details or in 20 years people will laugh at you 3MB of ram.
>>7360893
Just don't go into technology. Write your story, then set it 60 years in the future.
But really, try not to worry about it looking so silly in the future. Nobody will care if the story is strong enough. Take William Gibson and Neuromancer for example. The tech in that horrendously outdated and that was supposed to be in the future, but it held up because it's setting and story was fairly interesting and relateable.
>>7360893
>I'm thinking about writing a novel set about sixty years from now. I do not intend it to be sci-fi or futurist.
>>7360893
If you aren't willing to take risks, you have no business writing SF. My guess is this is your first novel. No one gives a shit. You will finish it and years later you will laugh.
>>7360893
Have you ever read "By the Waters of Babylon?" You could take that kind of approach.
>>7360893
UBIK WAS THE ORIGINAL INCEPTION
>>7360893
Good luck writing about a time where technology doesn't effect the lives of people.
>>7361144
Well, that's the problem, isn't it? I can't write a realistic novel without at least peripherally dealing with the time period it's set in. And one of the biggest aspects of a time period, and the way people live in it, is technology. So I have to deal with it, and naturally if I'm writing about the future I have to speculate. But I'm far more interested in the political and cultural characteristics that I'm anticipating than in technological advances. I know that to some extent, the politics and culture will be influenced by technology, but I suspect the connection between politics/culture and technology will be far less significant than many would expect. I want to focus more on the former than the latter, but I know I can't completely ignore the latter. How do I do this discretely without having to make wild predictions that will almost certainly prove untrue.
Another question is what do you think day-to-day life in the U.S. will look like in 60 years? Any thoughts, or am I on the wrong board for that?
>>7360893
>I would Like to set a book in the far distant year of 2015, but I don't want it to be science fiction. I will act like it is 1965 for the purposes of telling the stories. Surely in that time No technologies will emerge which will fundamentally alter the fabric of society, we will be caught in a war with the soviets, and we will have very nearly gone to the moon
>>7361575
Ah, I think I see. Have technology contrive to be held in stasis. That's not a gigantic problem.
Like Have an oil crash around 2020. Tech stops advancing at a breakneck pace, but solar panels are abundant. The Internet is only on during the daytime or something.
What story aRe you trying to tell
Keep them logical and rooted in current cutting edge science that is making real strides, but don't dwell on it. We don't dwell much on our technology now, for example the smartphone is common so whatever analog for it you use make it common too. We text people we don't type on our touchscreen display with quad core processor and whatever else. Yes it is true but not in the front of our minds. This will be true in the future.
People need transport and we are starting self driving cars it's not an outlandish claim that in sixty years they would be on the roads.
For something extraordinary or something bold something bold like ateroid mining which is in it's infancy (we landed on one, space flight is no longer government only, some rich people are trying to get it started) but keep it in its relative infancy in the future.
Unsuccessful attempts from the mining probes.
Automated employeeless fast food. Where maybe the machine fucks up the bun every time lately.
Also you could eschew the use of tech all together. I mean why not? Year 2058 people will have the same mundane conversations we have had for thousands of years. We will always have a way to leave point a and get to point b. You could make it as vague as you'd like it to be.
