The sci-fu ninjas over at io9.com whipped up this nifty timescale chart showing how far in the future sci-fi (in books, movies, TV, etc.) has been depicted over the decades. Two interesting points (for me, anyway) are the 1930s when it was all about the "far" future, more than 500 years ahead; and in the 1980s when we were obsessed with the "near future" less than 50 years. This timeframe also saw an influx of cheap sci-fi, especially in movies (Blade Runner, Back to the Future II, among others).
And what the heck happened to far future in the 90s? (Let's face it, there's a lot about the 90s that didn't make sense.)
My preferred era (if one can have such) is in fact the far future. I like things whiz-bang, far out, and epic--or crumbling, post-irratiated, newly barbaric.
It's not really a fine line, I admit.
What's your favorite future era?
Image: io9
Hmm - whenever they can make things float by cancelling out gravity. That's my favorite. Which, depending on the film or story, could be tomorrow, or could be in 5K years. :)
ReplyDeleteCulturally, I like it when it's so far in the future that they've forgotten about Earth, or just misplaced it somewhere.
- Ark
The far future, likewise is my main interest. It gives much leeway to plausibly present a world where society and mentality are removed and alien to our current mindsets, and of course, lots of space for amazing, far-flung technology.
ReplyDeleteThe Mid and Far are by my favorite I think. I've always liked The Original Series era of Star Trek when we had established colonies, personal disintergraters, cancelled gravity but still had to put elbow grease into making things work and the quick thinking of a normal personal could save the day or doom the crew.
ReplyDeleteI will also say that while I love the far future, too far and it becomes hard to relate to. If it is too amazing, it becomes difficult to connect with for me (one of the same reasons I'm not a fantasy fan - eventually everything needs to be more incredible and fantastic than the next just to be noticed).
What happened to the far future in the 1990's? I'd postulate Star Trek TNG and DS9 brought the focus to the closer future. But that's just me.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if all the rapid technological advances have made it too hard to picture what far future Sci-Fi would be like.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have a favorite era, though I do love cyberpunk, so near future is in the running.
Far flung future a la Larry Niven's known space. Near or post apoc just seems devoid of possibilities to me...
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