this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Asklemmy
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I think the best way to think of something new (to you, something new to all of humanity is harder of course) would be to pick some aspect of society, your daily life, a technology or social norm you are familiar with,... and analyse which underlying assumptions make it the way it is and then just figure out what would happen if that assumption didn't hold. That is basically what a lot of classic science fiction writers (among others) did. Take e.g. Asimov's Nightfall, a story about a world with (IIRC) 6 suns where it is only night once every 2000 years so people are not accustomed to darkness at all. Or Terry Bisson's They're Made Out of Meat where he questions our implicit assumption that aliens would be meat creatures like us.
Interesting answer. I admit I often imagine sci-fi scenarios myself without realizing how I am forming original thoughts.