Unlike
the works about the far future, set thousands or more years in the future and often tackling philosophical concepts such as the
ultimate fate of the universe, fiction set in the near future, roughly defined as within the next few years or decades, has been described as more realistic and containing themes that have been described as more socially relevant. On the other hand, works set in the near future also carry the risk of quickly becoming obsolete due to trends or events that its authors failed to correctly predict. as well as by the
non-fiction works from the field of
futures studies. However, the same era saw some works returning to the earlier
Golden Age traditions of the future as pristine and ordered, such as the animated series
The Jetsons (1962). Other common tropes related to
disaster fiction include comet and asteroid
impact events (
Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle's ''
Lucifer's Hammer'', 1977), aforementioned environmental disasters, or more far-fetched
alien invasion-scenarios (Wells'
The War of the Worlds,
Robert A. Heinlein's
The Puppet Masters, 1951,
Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956). Late 20th century saw the rise of the
cyberpunk genre, concerned with the new issues of the
Computer Age, and newer works often deal with topics such as
accelerating change,
genetic engineering,
artificial intelligence or
nanotechnology. Notable examples of the near future genre in science fiction works from the turn of the last century include
Frederik Pohl's
The Years of the City (1984),
Bruce Sterling's
Islands in the Net (1988), numerous works of
William Gibson,
David Brin's
Earth (1990) and
Greg Bear's
Queen of Angels (1990). Near future science fiction is also seen in some games, like the
Ace Combat series, which is set in an alternate universe where technology is advanced a small amount from the real world, with semi-futuristic weapons and vehicles like super-maneuverable
drones. ==Notes==