Creativity’s the Key

Why We Need More Sci-Fi Writers

Historically, much of humanity’s greatest technology stemmed from the ramblings of a mind that flowed onto paper and became a creative work of art. The genre of science fiction, or sci-fi, has long accompanied humanity’s finest inventions.

Maybe it takes some creative whimsy to dream of a world different from the one before our eyes. Or maybe it’s about recognizing the untapped potential of childlike wonder—a force that has steered society forward time and time again. Nonetheless, we need more sci-fi writers today. We need the dreamers and the creatives to invent what tomorrow looks like—not just to follow their blueprints but to sow the seeds of inspiration for others.

So much of what we take for granted today was once science fiction. Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea imagined submarines long before they were possible. H.G. Wells wrote about atomic bombs in The World Set Free decades before they became reality. More recently, Star Trek’s communicators laid the conceptual groundwork for modern mobile phones, and Isaac Asimov’s robot ethics influenced real-world discussions on AI morality. Sci-fi doesn’t just predict the future—it actively shapes it by giving form to ideas that might otherwise remain unspoken.

When current events feel so heavy and disparaging, it’s hard to break out of the negative feedback loop. But what if we were able to channel that frustration toward envisioning something better? What if, instead of resigning ourselves to a dystopian fate, we allowed ourselves to imagine futures of innovation, equity, and progress? Octavia Butler did this in Parable of the Sower, not just warning of collapse but offering a vision of resilience. Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future provides blueprints for climate action disguised as a novel. These aren’t just stories—they are roadmaps for possible futures.

Society looks the way it does because someone before us dared to think, to create, to dream. Traditions often start as a singular thought—an idea that gets developed, transmitted, and eventually ingrained in our collective consciousness until it feels as though it has always existed. So what if we start reimagining the traditions of tomorrow?

What if we give ourselves permission to break from the mold of anxious ruminations and instead seek to create something new and wonderful? What if more people picked up the pen to shape the world, rather than waiting to see what the world becomes?

We need more sci-fi writers, not just to reflect on the present but to light the way forward.

Written by Joseph Markman — exploring the human side of technology.

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