I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

People have laughed at all great inventors and discoverers.

Today's robots are very primitive, capable of understanding only a few simple instructions such as 'go left', 'go right', and 'build car'.

In most conventional novels, God is not allowed to be nuts. Nor are nuts allowed to be God.

I think these days an SF connection would be a boost to other books; I'm sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection.

Whatever I'm reading at the moment seems to influence whatever I'm writing.

SF has at least the advantage of not depending on preconceptions.