Is Science Fiction Dying?

Some time last week I stumbled on a post somewhere about science fiction dieing out. I immediately wanted to post a response, but couldn't find the words. Today, I found a post on New Scientist entitled, "Is science fiction dying?" by Marcus Chown. I won't say that my response was the most eloquent I could have posted, but I think it pretty much expresses my opinion on the subject:

Science Fiction won't die because it's fiction. The reason it feels that way now is because of the speed at which science is advancing. Back in the 50s and 60s, what was seen as sci-fi (space ships, small computers, androids, etc) was so far out of reach that if kept it's allure for a long time. Nowadays, all that is quaint.

Another problem with sci-fi is that elements of sci-fi are creeping into a lot of non-sci-fi media and diluting the WOW factor. Sci-fi now has to go that extra mile to keep from seeming quaint.

Sci-Fi needs to move from the realm of cyberpunk to biopunk since bioengineering is more the area of where science is going to be making slower progress than computers and robots and space ships.

Well, maybe not the space ships...

I do think that sci-fi in a lot of respects is already moving into the realm of biopunk with speculation on cloning, genetically modified plants and animals, drugs, etc. Stories about people who have been genetically altered to have gills or wings, evolved anthropomorphic animals, epidermal computers, and bioroids are where Science Fiction will continue to keep it's edge.

Science fiction won't die. At least not until science does.