How do you like your science fiction?

How do you like your science fiction?

Hard or soft?
Expansive or small scale?
In our solar system or outside and far from it?
Lots of races or just humans?
Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
Do you like AI being common?

Soft bordering on science fantasy.
Expansive
Large Scale and galactic or more
Lots of races
Far into the future
AI everywhere.

Just goes balls out

Problem is its extremely difficult to make settings with just too much novel stuff going on.

Varied.

>Hard or soft
I tend to lean towards harder sci fi with more of an emphasis on being plausable. Soft sci fi and science fantasy grinds my gears.
>Expansive or small scale?
Expansive. Having a large galaxy to explore is very fun.
>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
In the same galaxy but our system has been forgotten.
>Lots of races or just humans?
Just humans. Too many races makes it too confusing and in the end they just exist to be there and not for any real reason.
>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
In the in between era. People are still starting to explore the stars so there still some unexplored areas but tech is sufficiently advanced for space travel.
>Do you like AI being common?
Yes, but in a limited capacity. No AI races and AIs exist as either just helper bots or assistant computer systems.

Medium. Somewhere around Star Wars without the Force.
Expansive as fuck.
What the fuck in an "Earth?"
Mostly humans that have evolved to their current planets. Possibly beyond breeding with others, but not entirely alien.
See Earth comment.
Highly varies by both location and income. Some places thinkbots are like radios. Other places might kill you for your affront to space Allah.

>Science fantasy
>Lots of races
>AI everywhere

Mid term, I prefer plausible stuff.
More into the Small scale of things truth be told, likea few hundreds of stellar world explored.
I prefer humans only, but lots of races are fine too, I like both.
Not that far into the future, like a few hundreds of years after the space colonization started.
I don't tend to like AI, specially all powerful ones, but minor one are fine, specially if quirky/with personality.

Hard SciFi is often written by IRL scientists who think they're talented instead of just educated. They're almost always wrong. That said, I like guys of Crichton's caliber because they hit the sweet spot in "speculative" fiction where the Science is casual to keep the Fiction compelling. If I wanted dry as toast exposition, I wouldn't have dropped out of Uni ...

This is not to say that there's anything wrong with Space Fantasy, as I have enjoyed that on occasion as well. Both forms seem to have a little Good, a little Bad - and a LOT of mediocre drek.

I like it original and interesting.

Hard or soft, galactic or planetary, whatever.

Just make it GOOD.

Either speculative (e.g. Asimov, Clarke) or space opera (Macross, Space Battleship Yamato, The Expanse)

>hard sci is for armchair scientists
I hate this meme. Hard sci fi is fun to read because the internal logic is there and is basically needed. Science fantasy or soft sci fi plays it loose with the rules which personally grades on my nerves.

I'm a cynical misanthrope, so I prefer cyberpunk.

Sigh, user's point was that the hard sf writers, who tend to be pragmatic educated science types, are most often wrong about their speculations. He wasn't saying who should or should not read it.
You are perfectly correct for liking it, or not liking it, as you choose. Just be aware that the speculations, while sounding reasonable, will most likely prove wrong.

Dark, hyperactive, and fairly soft.

When Gravity Fails is my favourite science fiction book

Swords and planets with an expansive setting and humans in rubber masks with a small number of out there races who are alien for the sake of being alien.

>Hard or soft?
So soft you drop the science and it becomes space fantasy
>Expansive or small scale?
A small slice of a large setting
>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
Depends on the story being told
>Lots of races or just humans?
Just keep piling it on until you start having to copy shit that you've already put in
>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
Far enough into space colonization that there are some interesting locations, but not too many.
>Do you like AI being common?
As long as we don't get so common that robits are considered a race I'm fine with it.

It's all good.

>How do you like your science fiction?

sexy

>Hard or soft?
Hard, but casual
>Expansive or small scale?
Smaller, but not necessarily small
>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
Solar system is colonized, and we are possibly starting to look even further away
>Lots of races or just humans?
Just humans
>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
See above, but not too far
>Do you like AI being common?
Yes

This is all based on my favorite setting though, I can enjoy scifi in most forms

>mass effect
>hard

The only thing hard in mass effect is Shepard's dick.

I like hard sci fi that is approachable and nonpretentious

Too vast and things get complicated

extrasolar

small cast, lots of diversity within it

Advanced

at that point AI would be widespread, unless reasons

soft
expansive
anywhere
lots of distinct governments and cultures, be they human or many species
far future, if in our timeline at all
sure


Basically just fantasy in SPESS
Hard sci-fi is usually pretty boring.

It all depends how well it's written, how those elements fit together, what's the plot and how well that one is written. I've read different stories with all those elements in different configurations and to different degrees.

>diversity
Kill yourself neo-liberal scum

>Basically just fantasy in SPESS
>Hard sci-fi is usually pretty boring.
Fuck you. Playing it fast and loose with the rules is 10 times worse than going full autismo realism in hard sci fi. If you want to have a fantasy setting, play a goddamn fantasy setting.

I like my science fiction like I like my women.

My nigga.
Don't know I'd say absolute fave, but it's pretty great

>Hard or soft?
Either as long as it's internally consistent and considers the implications of the technologies it introduces.
>Expansive or small scale?
EXPANSIVE!
>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
In our solar system can be fine for hard sci-fi, but I think space opera is better if earth is either not mentioned, or long forgotten.
>Lots of races or just humans?
Lots of races, including different kinds of post-humans.
>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
As I said before, space opera is better when the story does not involve earth or take place on any specific earth calendar date.
>Do you like AI being common?
Very.

>Hard or soft?
Hard as possible without me having to understand advanced mathematics.
>Expansive or small scale?
You can make a good case for both, really. I guess, if things are just starting out, it should be small-scale, and vice-versa.
>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
They shouldn't just not have Earth, but it shouldn't all be cooped up in the solar system unless they're only just starting out.
>Lots of races or just humans?
Very few. Like, five, maximum. If someone has met members of more than three, then they're very well-travelled.
>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
Preferably as close to now as possible, because I don't like the idea that I'd be dead before I could see any of this happen.
>Do you like AI being common?
Yeah, but not super-complex Gold Man sorta AI.

>Hard or soft?
Soft, but with a hard aesthetic where it's implied that pilots etc are highly trained scientists but the science isn't realistic or written

>Expansive or small scale?
It's best told from the perspective of merchants, vagabonds, pirates and dirt farmers who don't care about the politics or greater scheme, who don't know what the galaxy holds.

>In our solar system or outside and far from it?
Far from it

>Lots of races or just humans?
I really really dislike non-human races in space opera because it's ridiculously impossible to create a believable society and history for them. To make them believable, you don't give them a story at all and make them socially incompatible with humans.

>Far into the future or just as space colonization begins?
I like post-spaceopera, with the grand exploration/colonization having collapsed into a dark age

>Do you like AI being common?
Definitely, it should actually be an important theme if the grid hasn't yet crashed. AI will one day create music and other content and flood our information vessels with useless crap.

As long as it's a fantasy setting IN SPACE

I don't mind, as long as the work is consistent. If it's going full autismo, then it better not pull anything out of its ass. But if it's on the softer side of things I don't mind things getting softer as time goes on.
Both are great.
I don't have a preference, really depends on the scale you're looking for. Expansiveness is better outside of this solar system, but small scale works a lot better without interstellar travel.
Humans only. Alien races are usually atrocious reskins of humans with some minor quirk that makes them "different".
As long as it's after initial colonization, it's fine. Again, it's the sort of story you're going for.
Not really, though I don't mind if AI is in the setting.

Any setting gets bonus points for having mecha though.

>hard aesthetic
What I mean by this is super bulky, full of innumerable wires and parts. In some cases you'll have a shiny and new exterior but inside it's just as "ugly" as the merchant's shoddy frigate.

I think the ships in Star Wars are really good.