A pal of mine, Jose Bogran recently discussed tech in scifi, or, more accurately, writing low tech in scifi. What was cutting edge in 1950’s Asimov is now quaint and laughable, and the scifi written today becomes outdated almost the moment it’s published, so maybe best keep the tech low, even non-existent.
I get the point: no one wants instant irrelevance, or downright implausibility because of tech advances, and I think JB proposed some excellent ways around it. But it’s like avoiding a murderer in your murder mystery.
I think most readers are very forgiving of classics like 2001 and Starship Troopers, even though current tech makes a lot of that stuff (HAL going crazy? Please) silly now. I’m not so sure how forgiving they are of current stuff, though, so invoking a few of JB’s suggestions should keep your scifi fresh.
But you could also go all mundane on their asses.
Mundane scifi, that is, which I think is a more accurate scifi than hard core megatech far future space operas could ever be. Although I am a big fan of Alastair Reynolds and Neal Stephenson (okay, so he’s more mundane than hard scifi, but, c’mon, Anathem?), I think things like Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars series is a more realistic scifi, if those two words can actually go together. It’s more within our possibilities.
So when I do scifi, that’s pretty much where I stay, near earth and near time. Most of the stories in (WARNING! Shameless plug follows!) The Last Man in the World Explains All are mundane, although there’s a couple of far space ones in there, too.
Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m opposed to hard scifi space operas.
I’m just not smart enough to write them.