In an article just published in the British Science Fiction Association’s magazine Focus, I write about how near-future science fiction might help us see and take a different fork in the road to our future.

However, given that the trick with near-future fiction is to extrapolate from the present, the particular difficulty at the moment is knowing which elements of the changes we are undergoing will stick.

Here’s an excerpt that you may have views on: “… the world feels less sure, more transient to use a term from Future Shock, and it’s probable that there will be an increase in the number of people that will be able to accept science fiction as plausible. Unless they are more sceptical because they associate science fiction with dystopia and they feel they know what a true one of those looks and feels like.”

Do you feel more or less inclined to see near-future fiction as a way of thinking about the future?