Writer Brenda Cooper had an interesting chat on the Post today.

As a futurist, Cooper disabuses people of some of their wilder ideas:

Atlanta, Ga.: What far out science fiction idea(s) do you think could be in our future? Warp Drive, Anti-Gravity, Teleporting????

Brenda Cooper: I’m not sure about any of those three. I am willing to bet on nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, and better/faster ways to get to and around in space. We may see space elevators.

One question does not quite get answered:

There was a time when much SF took place in a post-war future, at least internal to Earth or human societies (think Star Trek). But now, almost a decade into the 21th century, not only do I have neither flying car nor cyborg monkey butler, but I don’t think we can see any end in sight for war and armed conflict on massive scales (geographical, technological, or otherwise). Do you see this changing in SF?

The conditions for a future without war are not hard to imagine (despite all the alarming things going on), and so it is hardly a stretch for speculative fiction to explore those conditions. Many trends are driving us toward such a future, and I can believe that there might be a year within a few decades in which there are no real armed conflicts occurring anywhere.