What are your favorite Sci Fi concepts?

**psikeyhackr** · June 21st, 2009, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by weirdside

I love generation ships (but not with incredibly crazy, hard sci fi concepts) and first contact stories. For generation ship stories, I can't mention any because I haven't read any good ones. For first contact stories, I really liked Sagan's Contact.

Are you saying that you have not read this???

http://www.sfsite.com/07b/os108.htm

What do you mean by "incredibly crazy, hard sci fi concepts"?

psik

**nquixote** · July 1st, 2009, 01:07 AM

I'm a big fan of David Brin's "Uplift" idea...modifying animals to have human-level intelligence is just so AWESOME...

I also love the nanofabrication in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. It doesn't seem very energy-efficient, but damn, it would be awesome to have.

The pack-mind aliens from A Fire Upon the Deep were totally cool.

And of course I love the idea of creating God, as depicted in the Hyperion books (especially if that God travels backward in time and starts the whole loop going!).

William Gibson's depiction of the internet as basically a high-level visual programming language has been much derided, but I think it was interesting and cool.

**psikeyhackr** · July 6th, 2009, 08:52 PM

http://www.sliceofscifi.com/2007/12/...ience-fiction/

**noori noori** · August 14th, 2011, 04:58 AM

dr who re: The Time Lords. reminds me of the old soviet-style praesidium power politics of the cold-war era. gulp!

**DDCOrange** · August 14th, 2011, 10:10 AM

Hmmm, a lot of good threads today. If you were to pin down a specific one I would have to say that I'm the biggest sucker for space operas though alternate history/reality type stories would come a close second. Other types of concepts that I like are:

Steampunk
Apocalyptic
Cyberpunk
Time Travel
Space exploration
First contacts

Anything else I missed?

**krisbslick** · August 15th, 2011, 10:03 AM

Space Opera
Space/planet colonization
Military Science fiction

**marshal atkins** · August 15th, 2011, 03:01 PM

"The Wunderland Treatymaker."

First mentioned by Niven and fleshed out by Chafe in "Destiny's Forge"

The "Protector" stage of human life.

Again, first proposed by Niven in "Protector" but further developed and extrapolated in the recent Man/Kzin war storys by Matthew Harrington.

the "Rawlings Variant" war virus as described in Altered Carbon.

"Sophetechnology" from "The Golden Age" by John Wright.

**ebusinesstutor** · September 8th, 2011, 12:14 AM

A few of my favorite concepts:

Unusual Engineering
- Ringworld - Larry Niven
- Worldscaping - Isle if the Dead - Roger Zelazny

Effects of instant teleportation on our culture - Flash Mob - Larry Niven

Realistic Aliens & Cultures
- Mote in God's Eye - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
- Puppeteers/Kzin in Larry Niven's Known Space series
- Retrieval Artist Series - Kristine Katherine Rusch

Best Older Character
- Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon

Just pure fun
- Alien lizards invade Earth during World War II - WorldWar Series - Harry Turtledove
- Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex - essay by Larry Niven

**Conrad Nomikos** · September 8th, 2011, 01:55 PM

any books u guys know that the concept in basically the "creation of man" something along the side of the "ancient astronaut theory" in science fiction??

**symbolhunter** · September 8th, 2011, 02:31 PM

I like parallel universe stories, cyberpunk, steampunk, space opera, the superman and time travel.

I also enjoy that odd genre termed science-fantasy. This would include the ancient alien horror of H.P.Lovecraft, the Manga/Anime,Wolf's Rain and the soft sci-fi/fantasy of Jack Finney.

**Pennarin** · September 8th, 2011, 03:11 PM

Complex human civilization despite slower-than-light travel. How it can come about and stay in one piece despite decades of travel time for the ships, and what it means for the inhabitants of such a civilization.

Think Alastair Reynolds and his lighthugger ships pushing 0.99 C.

**Marigwen** · September 10th, 2011, 08:05 PM

Enhanced humans, interesting aliens, anything that allows a look at the human condition from a different perspective.

**megaphage** · September 12th, 2011, 06:28 AM

I like stories that introduce me to a completely new idea. They could have pretty much any setting or theme, but what I'm really after is a brilliant idea to capture my imagination and then for the author to explore that idea to it's maximum potential.

I also like...
- Stories with an epic timescale or stories set in the extreme-far future
- miniaturisation stories (although good ones are hard to find)
- classics. The first ever exploration of a pure science fiction concept. Invisibility, trips to the moon, etc.