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SCIFI HIGH FIVE

BROADCASTINGOCT 27 2026

Science Fiction isn’t about the future

Rob & Caitlin

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THE SAME EPISODE, WITH FACES.AUDIO ABOVE.

SUMMARY

Summary

Science fiction is set in the future, but is it really about the future? Rob and Caitlin argue it's about us, right now. They trace how every era of sci-fi reflects its own fears, from 1950s nuclear-age monsters to Cold War stories, post-9/11 surveillance, and today's climate fiction, and describe sci-fi as a train switch that shows where today's choices could lead. Caitlin makes the case for Becky Chambers's hopeful Monk & Robot books (A Psalm for the Wild-Built) as a mirror of a post-pandemic push for care. Rob explains why Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Water Knife, and Dune say as much about their authors' moments as about tomorrow. Along the way: cognitive estrangement, Margaret Atwood's historical-precedent rule for The Handmaid's Tale, Jurassic Park's "could vs. should" question, and why feeling a story can make an argument real.

CHAPTERS

Chapters.

  1. 00:00Sci-fi is about us, right now
  2. 01:04Every era writes its own fears
  3. 02:37More than escapism: sci-fi as a train switch
  4. 04:30Monk & Robot and hopeful futures
  5. 08:57Nineteen Eighty-Four and climate fiction
  6. 11:44Seeing the forest: cognitive estrangement and Dune
  7. 14:08Can sci-fi ever not be about the now?
  8. 17:14Jurassic Park and why stories hit harder than arguments
KEY IDEAS

Key ideas.

  • Set in the future, about the present. Science fiction looks at possible consequences of where we are now. As Rob puts it, "these are the consequences of the now."
  • Every era writes its own fears. Nuclear-age monsters, Cold War stories, post-9/11 surveillance, and climate fiction read together are more history lesson than prophecy.
  • Sci-fi throws the switch. Caitlin compares it to a train switch: a small choice now sends us to a very different place later.
  • Hope is a reflection, too. Monk & Robot imagines a utopian future that meets emotional needs, which Caitlin reads as a response to the 2020s.
  • Writers can't escape their moment. Rob: you are "a victim of your times," which is why George Orwell wrote about Big Brother, not climate change.
  • Stories make arguments real. A list of climate facts informs; feeling a character live through them is the gut punch.
WORKS WE DISCUSS

Works we discuss.

Also mentioned: Star Wars, The Wild Robot, High School Musical

TERMS WE USE

Terms we use.

  • Cognitive estrangement: Darko Suvin's term for how sci-fi pulls us out of the familiar world with a new idea, then follows it logically so we see our own world more clearly.
  • Climate fiction (cli-fi): fiction centered on climate change and how people live through, cause, or respond to it.
  • Utopian fiction: fiction that imagines a better society and asks what it would take, and cost, to get there.
  • Science fantasy: stories that blend science fiction's settings with fantasy's feel, where advanced tech starts to look like magic.
  • Post-apocalyptic fiction: stories set after civilization collapses, focused on survival and what people rebuild.
  • Big Brother: the all-seeing face of the Party in Nineteen Eighty-Four, now shorthand for invasive surveillance.
“These are the consequences of the now. I think that's what science fiction is.”

Rob (03:38)

XBLUESKY

“It's to remove us from what we're too close to see. And then it can kind of show us this mirror of our society and what's happening there.”

Caitlin (11:44)

XBLUESKY

“Because we feel those emotions, that makes the arguments real.”

Rob (19:28)

XBLUESKY

START HERE

Start here.

Want sci-fi that feels like a deep breath? Caitlin's pick is Becky Chambers's Monk & Robot books, starting with A Psalm for the Wild-Built: it's "a vibe," and Rob says it leaves him thinking "we'll be okay." If you'd rather see a cautionary tale built from today's headlines, Rob's favorite climate fiction is The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi ("it's really good"). Reading with kids? Rob has been reading The Wild Robot to his, for the same hopeful feeling.

TRANSCRIPT

Transcript.

Lightly cleaned from the final-cut transcript: filler, false starts, and back-channel "mm-hmm"s removed, and names corrected. Nothing reworded.

00:00 Sci-fi is about us, right now

  1. Caitlin

    Welcome to SciFi High Five, the friendliest podcast in science fiction.

  2. Rob

    We are your hosts, Rob Skidmore and Caitlin Jacobs. Today we are talking about why science fiction isn't about the future. If it's not about the future, what is it about?

  3. Caitlin

    It's about us. It's about us today, right now.

  4. Rob

    It's about me?

  5. Caitlin

    But it's about you. All science fiction is about Rob Skidmore.

  6. Rob

    Every single one.

  7. Caitlin

    I think this is a really fun topic because our last episode we talked about did science fiction predict the future? Did it invent the future? And this one is more about how that's not even what people are trying to do with science fiction, necessarily. That's not the goal of science fiction, right? The emotional core of science fiction is showing us our own world today, in whatever time that book was written in. If you get a really good book or movie or story, what have you, then it feels relevant for a really long time.