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24th Century Sci-Fi

Bry_Sinclair

Vice Admiral
Admiral
In the world of Trek, what do you think science fiction writing and holonovels are like in the 24th century (discounting any retro works such as Captain Proton)?

Where would the creative minds of the future think things can go from there?
 
Maybe everybody reads historical fiction in the future.

That seems to be the trend. I recall reading somewhere someone said that it would be almost impossible to imagine what 24th century folks might consider speculative/light years away from happening. Nostalgia is in, especially when you're surrounded with tech day in day out as Starfleet crew are.
 
Can you imagine corporate workplace drama for Klingons?
Two Klingon cubicle workers are taking their break by the water cooler, or bloodwine barrel or whatever the hell is the mingling spot in Klingon corporate offices. They hear the Death Howl being screamed out of a board room down the hallway.
"I guess K'Tark finally got that promotion he's been bitching and moaning about."
 
Stuff at the cutting edge of their science. Anti-Time physics, alternate dimension/galaxy stuff. Maybe some things that are fantasy to us are sic-fi to them -- telekinesis, self-teleportation, conjuring energies from the ether like a wizard...

Maybe stuff mixing species and technologies that they've been as yet unable to -- making it possible for humans to mind-meld, or make with a Tholian, or figure out Iconian technology...

Stories having to do with stuff that's a mystery to us -- the nitty gritty of Dark Matter and Dark Energy, why the universe is expanding faster, what existed before the Big Bang...

Just really out there stuff we have't even wondered about -- when we solved pi and found out that tachyons come from childrens tears, the question then arose, why did God uncreate himself by solve for x...
 
All this reminded me of lines from Firefly:

Wash: Psychic, though? That sounds like something out of science-fiction.
Zoe: We live in a spaceship, dear.

But that did make me think that sci-fi in the 24th century could involve things that would still seem magical. Seeing into the future, mind-reading, ghosts and the paranormal, that kind of thing.
 
In reality? The virtual and "real" will be interchangeable, nanotech would allow what can be conjured up in imagination into reality, either as a physical or intelligent "bot" construct but could also transform and travel at the speed of light as information exchange.

Science fiction for example would cease to exist, it would become reality. Stories would have an ongoing, stream-of-consciousness narrative. Some people might lose themselves in it..but what would it matter when you can't tell the difference?

http://www.thenanoage.com/#virtualreality
http://www.thenanoage.com/


RAMA


In the world of Trek, what do you think science fiction writing and holonovels are like in the 24th century (discounting any retro works such as Captain Proton)?

Where would the creative minds of the future think things can go from there?
 
I think the problem with science fiction in the Trek universe, is that it'll only serve to emphasise the hokey nature of Trek, which SHOULD apply it's technology in many ways but doesn't.

For example, the transporter being used as a cure-all, or to beam anywhere or even to other universes or through time. In Trek's world, that's science fact with a few minor modifications.
 
For those saying science fiction would cease to exist, I don't think it would. People never stop imagining what will be next.

At what point do you decide you're 'living in the future' and stop imagining? Whatever year you're in, it's always 'the present' and you take what you already have for granted. We have tablet computers, smartphones, ebooks, electric cars, video communication, the world wide web, god knows what else, but we're still imagining. The world of Trek would be no different. They're surrounded by starships and warp drives and wormholes and godlike noncorporeal beings, but this is their status quo. They'll be wondering what's next, just like we are now.

It could be, as @Tim Walker said, intergalactic travel vs interstellar, or a world where time travel is the norm rather than a relatively exceptional event (bearing in mind that in VGR and ENT we saw glimpses of a future Starfleet that could time travel with ease), 'transwarp' capabilities on every ship, or maybe even ways of travelling that don't involve a ship at all. Or as @Arpy said, Dark Matter/Dark energy, or deep theological stuff related to the nature of the universe itself... Basically anything that's out of their grasp in the 'present'.
 
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