So you wanna live on Mars?
This redneck mispent a significant portion of his youth devouring science fiction. I pretty much stuck to what is now categorized as 'hard' science fiction, as in based on 'hard' science, ie what we thought we knew about physics and such. We populated other planets, solar systems, created new societies, fought wars, and when things got tough, we could board a rocket and go somewhere else. Space travel was easy. About the same time I grew out of sci-fi, the genre evolved into fantasy and science fiction, as in mostly fantasy, elves, dragons and wizards, and magic without science. Then we got dystopian future fiction, which is also classified as fantasy and science fiction. In contrast to the sci fi I grew up with, the dystopian was a future no one would want to live in. Looking back with a critical eye, so called hard sci-fi was every bit as fictional and magical as elves and dragons. When science fiction went to Hollywood it became even more di...