I was thinking of what if any story idea to use for NaNoWriMo this year. The two that came to mind are both fantasy. Now, I'm a hard SF fan from way back so why is my mind going to fantasy? Why are the first two ideas that pop into my mind vampires and werewolves or magic as the base of technology. Back when I was a kid I would wonder about such science based stories which involved beams and drives and aliens and kids in their basements building devices that did wondrous things. Did I get old? Did I learn enough science that such things are obviously impossible to me.

I hope not (the old part especially). Also I don't believe we (humans) know enough science to rule out the supposedly impossible things like FTL or wormholes or other dimensions.

Or has science and technology advanced so much that we now must use the typical tropes of fantasy to evoke that same sense of wonder. I hope not. I find that a lot of my hard SF ideas are involved with the Fermi Paradox. For those not familiar with it; it says that if any other intelligent life evolved on other planets then we should have evidence of that fact. Either they should be detectable, or have left evidence as they passed through this system or should be here.

Has wonder become expected? I remember my father marveling at the image on TV of someone who was dead. Now the hulk walks across the screen and we comment that he has a bit of a stutter in one of his steps. How long will it be before we slide a book into one end of a machine and out pops a tape disk bit stream from the other, complete with special effects and our favorite actors.

In any case the solution is to write and for me to quit fretting over what it is I write.