Visualizing your Science Fiction Future

What does the future world look like?  That is a darn good question.  I can't answer it, but I know that you have to build a consistent vision to make your story work.  Hopefully, it isn't anachronistic either, as we all bring baggage from the present to our future visions.

So where to start any visualization exercise?

I would say you would have to think about how things work in a number of spheres of influence.  Just off the top of my head as I really haven't planned this post out, I would use the following:

1. Personal Sphere.
2. Family / Home Sphere.
3. Work Sphere / School Sphere (depends where you character spends work time - do they still even have work?).
4. City Sphere.
5. Country Sphere.

Personal Sphere

• What is my appearance? Any current body stylings?
• How do I do mundane tasks like check for appointments, call someone, read news, make coffee, buy a sandwich, etc?
• What are the fashions I wear?
• What is my daily routine?
• What kinds of personal devices or augments do I use?
• What is my health like and what are the expectations for health? My expected lifespan?
• What type of relationships do I have with friends and how do I interact others?  Is anything in person?
• What kind of personal technology is in use? 
• What are my attitudes towards others (gender, race, robots, environment) and my personal preferences?

Family Sphere

• What kind of family structures exist?  Nuclear family, extended family, clone bank?
• Do I have siblings?
• Do I relate to an AI? Who is my nanny or mom or pop?
• Do we live together?
• What are the expectations of family.  Is it loose or tight?  Equal between parents?  Are there parents?
• How do I entertain myself?  Holodeck, old fashioned book, movie, personal crafts?
• How do I interact with computer technologies?  Tablet, wristpad, cranial implants?

Work Sphere or School Sphere

• Does the corporation rule all?  Very common trope these days - but not likely - as corporations don't look after people all that well - they lay them off - you don't lay off citizens.
• What is my job?  What do I do?  What are my hours?  What kinds of crisis or important moments do I have?  Do jobs exist?
• What is the corporate or school hierarchy?
• How does school work?  Still have regular classrooms or is it more personal?  Are there still exams? Do grades mean anything?  How am I evaluated?  How does one judge my character or academic achievement so they would hire me for a job or give me any responsibility?
• What are the divisions in the the company?
• What kind of technology is in use at school or the workplace? 

City Sphere

• What does the city look like?  Centralized, decentralized.  Arcopolises that stand a mile high?  Or does it look like the super green city with solar and green rooftops?
• Public transit system is super cool or run down?  Do robot cars / taxis exist?
• What are city services?
• What type of government?
• How do elections work?
• Taxes.... 
• What is the crime like?
• Residential, industrial, entertainment, and business districts?
• Hospitals and health care?
• Infrastructure technologies?  How are houses built - apartments, single familty dwellings? How is power delivered?  
• What are the communications lines, mass media, other media outlets?
• Are people happy in the city?

Country Sphere

• Do countries exist or is there some other type of government?
• What type of government? Democracy with parties, democracy without parties, everyone votes on each issue, religious, oligarchy, partriarchy/martriarchy, communist, dictatorship, benevolent machine rule, etc?
• What are the duties of a citizen?
• What kinds of technology are regulated at this level?
• What kinds of major infrastructure are in place?  Smart highways, maglev trains, space programs, airports, spaceports, port facilities, manufacturing (robots / nanotech), energy production (solar, fossil fuels, nuclear, fusion, zero point energy)
• What are the military forces and tech?  Is there a military?  Soldiers or bots?
• What regulatory agencies and monitoring tech exist?  Big brother?  Pollution control?
• What government services are available and the delivery tech for them?
• What Protective services and law enforcement tech?
• What is the foreign policy?  Tensions between nations?  Intelligence gathering?
• What is trade like between nations?  Corporate states?
• What are key cultural imports / exports?
• What is travel out of the country like?  Off planet?
• Key taxes?
• Key laws?  Birth control? Reproductive rights? Murder? What are serious crimes? Political restrictions?  Freedom of speech?
• What does the future internet look like?

This is just a bunch of ideas jotted down so it isn't any more than a starting place!  I just think that answering some of these questions while writing would make for a more cohesive future setting for a story.



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