this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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I've been loving my hard scifi recently. But I feel like it's begun to demonstrate how much easier it is to imagine all the ways things could go wrong. If fiction is how we lay an outline for the future, I wonder if anyone can recommend some more uplifting stories to me? Rather than a cautionary tale I would appreciate a story with a setting where the author dares to risk being wrong about what's right for us. Naturally this may simply be the setting for a somewhat unrelated story, but I'm curious what sorts of literature comes to mind that falls into this category.

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[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 19 points 1 year ago

The Culture series by Iain Banks. It's level of post scarcity makes Star Trek look destitute.

[–] hungover_pilot@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

The Culture series by Iain M Banks has an interesting spin on a utopian society.

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

None of these are Utopian but a trend towards being better.

One of Ted Chiang’s short stories The Story of your Life (the basis for the movie Arrival) perhaps?

Project Hail Mary

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[–] lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Though I wouldnt count the barely-avoiding-imminent-human-Apocalypse from Project Hail Mary a trend to the better for humanity 😆

[–] SzethFriendOfNimi@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Each of these have some conflict or struggle but the ending is more hopeful.

[–] JacobCoffinWrites@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago

The solarpunk genre in general might have some good stuff for you - my favorite so far is Murder in the Tool Library, but the Terraformers might be closer to what you're looking for.

[–] essteeyou@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I found Beacon 23 by Hugh Howey to be a little too optimistic to be realistic in the end. I don't mean that in a bad way, as I thoroughly enjoyed the story, including the ending. I'm just too much of a pessimist. :-)