Why did science fiction stop moving forward?
Based on the website address, I thought the article would be about written science fiction, which continues to move forward if you ignore recommendations from people who don&#x27;t actually like science fiction. I think &quot;The Martian&quot; counts as moving forward, but I&#x27;m much less happy with most of the books Amazon recommends for me.<p>But the article is about television. I really am not qualified to say much about television other than until very recently, it was very hard to have a hit TV show that only appealed to a niche audience. A series faithfully based on &quot;The Martian&quot; isn&#x27;t likely to get a slot in prime time. The closest you&#x27;ll get is so-called soft science fiction, which presents stories that happen to be set in unfamiliar locations (usually space), but where science has no influence on the story.<p>Maybe there&#x27;s a chance now, with a very different distribution model, but even if hard science fiction fans can be perfectly targeted through Netflix or Amazon, special effects will keep production costs high.