The essence of the SF story is the "What If...," right? So much of that "what if" isn't so much about actual limitations, it's about 'soft' ones. Could we colonize the moon tomorrow? Yes we can. It's not realistic to think that we would, but that realism is bound up in a lack of will.

That core of "what if" is the basis for the sense of wonder in SF. When I think about sense of wonder, I think of being intoxicated on possibility. It's not the grandeur of space, but the possibilities that grandeur represents. Freedom maybe?

Looking retrospectively on childhood, that's equally what stands out about it. There was possibility. I don't mean fluidity of imagination, but the future had yet to be writ. You didn't know your limitations, so you had to assume you could do anything. What we miss the most out of childhood, is what SF is the most about.

And that's why something like the Somalian pirates is so damnably disturbing. Yes, it's that easy. Yes, we're continuously that close to so very, very many of the "what ifs" out there.

It just so happens that SF is the best vehicle for comprehending a grasp upon that feeling, that maybe gets transference elsewhere.

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I suppose all this transhuman rapture talk goes over my l'i'l meaty head.

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I've enjoyed reading everyone's comments here, even though this is the first time I've witnessed an io9 disemvowelling. As for myself, I love both the "sense of wonder" stuff and the gritty dystopian stuff, and don't see it as an either/or.

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