Science fiction does not have to be dystopian in order to be interesting

t is easy of course. Dystopias provide better opportunities for conflict. It is easier to imagine villains. People preying on other people. People wanting power. And after they get the power, misusing them. Think Mad Max.

I think it's lazy. Maybe not lazy, just something that has been done many times before.

It is easy to create a villain in a broken world.

But, there are a few assumptions there that might not actually be true.

Studies have shown that disasters bring out the best in people. When faced with a disaster, people actually band together and form impromptu communities to help each other get by. Like how when Trump had asked the EPA to cut the climate page from its website and lots of people on the web banded together and started downloading the environmental data. Or how, people behave during actual calamities.

There is another trope we have about villainous robots, and aliens. Again, easier to imagine a robot as a killing machine, think Terminator. Or a killer alien, think Predator or Alien. It is easier to create a story out of that.

It is easier to imagine a broken world. It does not make much. Humanity feels like we have been on the brink for most of my adult life. But we need hope in the world.

And there can be different sorts of stories that can be told.