headphone is gunning for Sony and Bose
we see a lot of sci-fi based around the idea that humans will become so technologically advanced that they engage in space exploration as a sort of side-note to the other, much more significant medical and scientific advancements, and eventually space travel and life in space becomes the norm.
but we (at least I personally haven’t, but I welcome recommendations for sci-fi that does follow this route) don’t see a lot of sci-fi that examines the idea of life in space as a last-ditch effort to save humanity from a rapidly toxic earth. there wouldn’t be time for someone to digitize and export all the information in the world onto a ship designed to carry humans through space. there would be so much focus on specialization of jobs to make sure synthesizing materials is easily accessible down the line, and it would completely stunt the way humans interacted with their memory of Earth. and then what happens when, hundreds of years down the line, stories become just stories and people don’t have a frame of reference for what Earth was like, and the only remnants are what they managed to get into space with them? Would they see the stories about Earth as mythology?
We see it happen with ancient cultures. People in new generations doubt the stories of the old civilizations and their ways of life, information is lost over time, language evolves and certain words and phrases become obsolete. How will people remember the ocean if there was never an ocean for them to visit? Will they have heard that word in their life?
I, for one, want to see more sci-fi that explores the concept of humanity’s abilities and technologies stunted by their escape from an earth that was exploited and killed. What would medicine be like in that future? What literature would exist? I’m intrigued and also I’m writing an entire novel immediately.
