Charlie Jane Anders

Instead, I use a mixture of active dreaming and awareness of cutting-edge trends in science and technology, and also an insight into human history.

I think a lot about what I know of human nature and the way that people have responded in the past to huge changes and upheavals and transformations.

And I pair that with an attention to detail, because the details are where we live.

We tell the story of our world through the tools we create and the spaces that we live in.

And at this point, it's helpful to know a couple of terms that science fiction writers use all of the time.

Future history and second-order effects.

A future history is basically just what it sounds like.

It is a chronology of things that haven't happened yet.

Like Robert A. Heinlein's famous story cycle, which came with a detailed chart of upcoming events going up into the year 2100.

Or for my most recent novel, I came up with a really complicated timeline that goes all the way to the 33rd century and ends with people living on another planet.

Meanwhile, a second-order effect is basically the kind of thing that happens after the consequences of a new technology or a huge change.

There's a saying often attributed to writer and editor Frederick Pohl that a good science fiction story should predict not just the invention of the automobile, but also the traffic jam.

And speaking of traffic jams, I spent a lot of time trying to picture the city of the future.

What's it like?

What's it made of?

Who's it for?

I try to picture a green city with vertical farms and structures that are partially grown rather than built, and walkways instead of streets because nobody gets around by car anymore.

A city that lives and breathes.

And, you know, I kind of start by daydreaming the wildest stuff that I can possibly come up with.

And then I go back into research mode, and I try to make it as plausible as I can by looking at a mixture of urban futurism, design porn and technological speculation.