Past Futures

[supergee]

Charlie Stross on a lot of sf ideas that don’t work anymore.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

*takes notes*

Dystopian New(?) Idea

[arlie]

One idea worth exploring farther is a far future, after these things have happened:
- the climate has warmed to dinosaur era levels
- the rich and their descendants, plus some privileged servants, have retreated to artificial habitats, which maintain comfortable temperatures etc. as folks in 2020 conceive them. (E.g. Temperatures in the low 70s, Farenheit, year round.) Those who go outdoors mostly wear special gear, particularly anyone who has to work outdoors - but this is extremely rare, since food is produced indoors etc.
- the poor, and their descendants have adapted to a much warmer climate. They are for example considerably smaller tha modern humans, for better thermal regulation in unrelenting heat.

Just about any hackneyed post-atomic-apocalypse plot could be redone, e.g. privileged scion is exiled.

Or plenty of first-contact plots, if we assume significant unexpected psychological changes on both sides, which have become fixed in their genes. (See Cherryh's Foreigner series.)

But much of the plot could be an excuse for exploring just how bad things could get.

The result could be comedy, tragedy, or heroic success, depending on taste.