I have written three novels set in the future, trying to depict a positive future. Likely the publishers who rejected them were right about flaws in my writing skills, but I keep wondering if a key flaw was there WASN'T ENOUGH VIOLENCE in my stories.
Also want to comment: have you read any 1940s sci-fi? Man encounters aliens, and by the end of the story you can see that the aliens don't realize there are two human sexes because no woman has ever been mentioned. Unless the hero has to rescue a woman whose tits are bigger than her brain.
Third comment: I do feel that while the situation you depict is essentially accurate, you underplay the role of sociopaths in manipulating culture. This includes a sociopathic, violent, expansionary CULTURE which has taken over the world because willingness to use violence is an advantage. If our problem is that we're adolescent, what about the cultures of thousands of years ago, many of them wiser than our own? This is clearly true of the indigenous cultures of my own continent, North America. THEY were grownups--some of them refer to us as "younger brother." In other words, I don't think you can say much about "human nature" which is very plastic.
I have written three novels set in the future, trying to depict a positive future. Likely the publishers who rejected them were right about flaws in my writing skills, but I keep wondering if a key flaw was there WASN'T ENOUGH VIOLENCE in my stories.
Also want to comment: have you read any 1940s sci-fi? Man encounters aliens, and by the end of the story you can see that the aliens don't realize there are two human sexes because no woman has ever been mentioned. Unless the hero has to rescue a woman whose tits are bigger than her brain.
Third comment: I do feel that while the situation you depict is essentially accurate, you underplay the role of sociopaths in manipulating culture. This includes a sociopathic, violent, expansionary CULTURE which has taken over the world because willingness to use violence is an advantage. If our problem is that we're adolescent, what about the cultures of thousands of years ago, many of them wiser than our own? This is clearly true of the indigenous cultures of my own continent, North America. THEY were grownups--some of them refer to us as "younger brother." In other words, I don't think you can say much about "human nature" which is very plastic.