How to Write Stories People Will Love

Question 84: Writing about future technology

Mysterywriter_007 asks: I'm writing a science fiction novel that plays off in the 22nd century with high technology. How do I know what to use as new objects since its almost a hundred years from now? I don't want my ideas to sound off or impractical. How can I describe new tech and objects in that era?

Some fiction known as "hard science fiction" is very much into scientific accuracy. The future technology in the story has to be grounded in existing scientific principles. The Martian is a good example of this, and was written by a software engineer who also a enjoys studying space, physics and orbital mechanics for fun. He knew what he was talking about.

If hard science isn't your thing, then you don't have to worry about scientific accuracy. The story can be more about the plot rather than the technological details. The less you know about how something works, the vaguer you want to be about the details of that tech. You are, after all, writing a story and not a reference guide.

I once read a romance that was set in a sci-fi world. They shot "laser guns" and traveled in "space ships". All the future tech was very generic. It was extremely weak as a science fiction story, but it was a romance above all else. Readers who want romance don't usually need a lot of sciency stuff.

Tons of science fiction authors make up their own technology. Star Trek had transporters, complete with their their own set of terminology for parts and mechanisms. Dune had space travel made possible by some esoteric material called "spice". Sci-fi video games have "plasma weapons" that simply work like normal guns, only with energy shots instead of bullets. They don't attempt to explain how they work, they just assume scientists figured it out and this is how it is.

I think a nice balance is to take existing technology that people are familiar with and "improve" it somehow. Like stun guns that emit sound waves instead of electricity. Or cars that levitate instead of drive on wheels. Or jetpacks that use antigravity mechanisms instead of fuel combustion. The tech will be familiar to the reader (we already know what guns, cars, and jetpacks are) but they will seem future-like by not functioning exactly as they do today.

For a good balance of light sci-fi and YA plot, read The Lunar Chronicles, or at least Cinder, Book 1 of the series. You get a good sense of the technology of the time without having to tangle with technical terms. What made that series popular were the characters and the plot. If you write a good story, people can forgive any scientific weakness it may have.