But we need sci-fi that speaks to us today. But to know that, we need to know what the world's problems are:
- The world hates itself
- People have given up
- The problems we face are just too big
We hate each other and we are ruled by fear, plain and simple. Our world can do nothing great unless it learns to work together, and more-so, come together behind great things. Our society has also turned inward with a sickness of "me" and self-important posts on Facebook and Twitter. It's not about you, it's about us! We distract ourselves with online games and Pokemon Go when there are great and incredible discoveries out there in the universe waiting for us to get over ourselves and take the challenge on.
It is an odd feeling, but Star Wars, Star Trek, superhero movies like The Avengers, Firefly, and all of those other forms of sci-fi don't feel like they speak to me anymore. They all feel like window dressing sci-fi that puts a western, romance, or Earth-bound drama in spacy clothes, bug-eyed aliens, and car-like starships and presents it to us as "meaningful."
It is not meaningful because it does not reflect the problems we face. It feels tone-deaf today because it speaks to none of our problems. Sci-fi is about reflecting who we could be, and overcoming the human drama that is life to rise above and do great things. At least, that is what speaks to me today. In the 1960's when television made the world smaller and brought every corner of the world into our living room, yes, Star Trek would have spoke to me. In a way the crew sitting in front of that large TV and dealing with the problems it brought into their world, a bridge that was essentially an American living room, would make sense and speak to that era.
But now, no, it doesn't mean anything to me more than nostalgia. What means something to me is overcoming hate. Finding a way despite all of our "it's about me and my way of life, screw you" based differences to come together and solve impossible problems. It's about living in a bigger universe. It's about us, not me.
Star Wars ships that fly around like "space cars" speak to the 1950's and 60's when exploring the universe meant hopping in the family Chevy station wagon and cruising the open highways and interstates. Those don't mean that much to me anymore than just nostalgia, since they don't reflect the real problems we have in escaping the deathtrap that is Earth at this moment. We need to prepare the next generation for the great "Christopher Columbus" type difficulties and hardships of space travel and exploration, and it will never be as easy as hopping in the Millennium Falcon and tooling off to Mars for a few hours.
The spaceships in Interstellar and The Martian feel like things that our culture should be dealing with and preparing the future generation for. They speak to me. They speak to the challenges we have ahead of us. They speak to the math, science, and physics problems that will be the next generation's "dragon" to slay when we finally escape this world and move on to better things.
I like my escapist entertainment, but in the end it doesn't mean much to me. It provides a couple hours of distraction and something popcorn goes well with for a night out. It's fun, but it doesn't make me think. It doesn't make me want to do better for myself, to sacrifice for something greater, and "do the math." I know going against "what's popular" is fruitless and pointless, right? But there is something here, something greater than just a popcorn movie.
I find my tastes changing today, yet the world around me still seeks the safety of the blanket of nostalgia. We grow inward with our social media and online identities, and we lose what it is to be human - together. To accept the greater challenges. To explore. To understand each other in face of an impossible problem. To overcome.
Even supposed "hard science" games like Traveller still have that "space cars" influence in a way. They ignore the little challenges, they focus on the wrong things, it feels too much about "me" than "us". They are too easy, point and go. They take in a thousand ideas from a thousand random sources and say "hey, sci-fi!" They ignore the "grand challenge" of making it to a point of space that is infinitely small when we look up at the stars, yet when we are there is as large as a planet.
For sci-fi gaming, I am done with nostalgia and I want something that speaks to us. I want something that reflects the challenges ahead of us instead of the memories of the past. I want something hard, that forces my players to work together, think, and solve problems. It doesn't have to be hardcore trigonometry and math, but having a game that reflects what space travel will be like for our children and their children really means a lot more to me than laser swords or space battleships right now. It still has to be a game and fun, but what it speaks to will be different than the games and sci-fi serials of the past.
Something greater calls.
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