The science fiction method is dissection and reconstruction.

The future depicted in a good SF story ought to be in fact possible, or at least plausible. That means that the writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true... and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you.

People as me how I do research for my science fiction. The answer is, I never do any research.

You don't think progress goes in a straight line, do you? Do you recognize that it is an ascending, accelerating, maybe even exponential curve? It takes hell's own time to get started, but when it goes it goes like a bomb.

In terms of stories I would buy for a science fiction magazine, if they take place in the future, that might do it.

When I sit down to the feast of life ... I'm so busy planning on how to pick up the check, and wondering what the other people think of me for paying it, and wondering if I have enough money in my pocket to pay the bill, that I don't get around to eating.

Advertising reaches out to touch the fantasy part of people's lives. And you know, most people's fantasies are pretty sad.