# What sci-fi universe would you live in? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2004, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334 "2004-05-21T07:39:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/1 "2004-05-21T07:39:03Z")
Inspired by [this thread,](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=256864) if you could choose any science fiction universe or era to live in, which would you prefer the most? Rules are the same as the other thread: You’re not a slave laborer in the acid mines on Qualotz 6, but you’re not Emperor of the Galaxy either. My choice would to be a citizen of Terminus in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Self-heating meals made of processed yeast, nuclear-powered wristwatches, and a summer vacation on Kalgan is just one or two hyper-jumps away. What more could you ask for? ---
**Author:** ![Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kombucha_ShroomPerson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/2 "2004-05-21T12:09:20Z")
I’d live in the Culture. Then even if I’m not hugely succesful, I get an absolutely incredible quality of life, and no-one in the Culture lives a horrible life. I’m assuming I can’t be a drone or a Mind, btw. Thats probably too cool to assume. Would being in Contact be hoping for too much? Would that overstep the “no too goo a life” mark? ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/3 "2004-05-21T12:09:27Z")
I’d go for the Culture universe of Iain M Banks. ---
**Author:** ![Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kombucha_ShroomPerson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/4 "2004-05-21T12:14:50Z")
I’m sorry. “No too goo a life”? “Not too good a life”, clearly. Now, if I could gland concentration-enhancing drugs at will, would that have happened? I think _not_. ---
**Author:** ![RandomLetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/5 "2004-05-21T13:21:09Z")
Known space would be pretty interesting, through I would want to live after the Kzinti wars. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/6 "2004-05-21T14:32:18Z")
I’d like to live in the hard-science golden age of in-system space travel set in the year 2000 or so (hmmmm . . . ). I want to live in a rocket ship. I want to mine asteroids or run supplies to colonies on Ganymede or pilot a jump taxi on the Moon. I’m not picky about which exact universe it is. Just give me a ship of my own and get me out of the Earth’s gravity well and I will be a happy space cadet. Hot jets! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/7 "2004-05-21T15:19:14Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > My choice would to be a citizen of Terminus in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series. Self-heating meals made of processed yeast, nuclear-powered wristwatches, and a summer vacation on Kalgan is just one or two hyper-jumps away. What more could you ask for? Fresh air, non-yeast food, and a home someplace other than on an overpopulated, non-self sufficient world that’s the capital of an unstable empire? 🙂 While you’re eating your yeast and worrying that your watch will meltdown, have you ever thought about Asimov’s Aurora? ---
**Author:** ![Graycat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Graycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Graycat)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/8 "2004-05-21T15:27:45Z")
I want to live on Beta Colony in Bujold’s universe. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/9 "2004-05-21T17:33:09Z")
I would wish to live in the Hyperion series universe (Dan Simmons). The universe as it is at the end of the second series. ---
**Author:** ![krisolov](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/krisolov/32/3724_2.png) [@krisolov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/krisolov)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/10 "2004-05-21T17:41:37Z")
SM Sterling’s Nantucket would be great, although I’m not sure it fits as a true SF unverse. Dan Simmons’ Hyperion universe would be… interesting, but a bit dark. I’ll second either Bujold’s Barrayar or Banks Culture as fun ones to live in. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/11 "2004-05-21T17:46:04Z")
Put me down as another one for the Culture. Or, failing that, Cordwainer Smith’s Instrumentality of Mankind (after the Rediscovery, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/12 "2004-05-21T17:46:52Z")
I’d pick the one in Heinlein’s _Time Enough for Love_, if only for the bathrooms. Such luxury! And sentient computers and spaceships would be pretty cool too. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/13 "2004-05-21T18:29:37Z")
I’d live in the Barsoom of the John Carter stories. More scantily-clad princesses than you can shake a stick at. ---
**Author:** ![Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kombucha_ShroomPerson)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/14 "2004-05-21T18:34:49Z")
> [@krisolov](#): > > Dan Simmons’ Hyperion universe would be… interesting, but a bit dark. I considered that, but was too scared of the Shrike. I don’t care how average the OP says my life is, I’m not getting put on its tree. Although a galaxy ruled by the Catholic Church wouldn’t be a picnic either. Now if I could _be_ the Shrike… ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/15 "2004-05-21T18:54:37Z")
> [@Graycat](#): > > I want to live on Beta Colony in Bujold’s universe. Vat protein, no trees, desert, very restrictive ecological laws and ‘steady freddie’ as president? eeeew… I want to be a Haut from Cetaganda…ba “cabanaboy”, peel me a grape! [though no kiten trees for me, I want the tiny unicorn] ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/16 "2004-05-21T19:26:29Z")
John Varley’s Eight Worlds universe, hands down. ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/17 "2004-05-21T19:29:44Z")
> [@Cowgirl Jules](#): > > I’d pick the one in Heinlein’s _Time Enough for Love_, if only for the bathrooms. Such luxury! And sentient computers and spaceships would be pretty cool too. HA! I’m so glad I’m marrying you. You have SUCH good taste, **Jules**. Most definitely Tertius. The Diskworld being a close second. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/18 "2004-05-21T19:35:26Z")
And Hey! In that universe, we could marry everyone! Ought to keep **if6was9** AND Cowboy happy, no? ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/19 "2004-05-21T20:27:42Z")
You guys got me. Definitely Heinlein’s _Future History_ universe. Health Care that effectively means that if you’re alive when the doc gets to you you’re going to stay that way. Effective immorrtality (barring accident). (Apparently) loads of easygoing redheads. No more draconian laws…hell, on some planets nothing more than ‘Do unto others…or they’ll shoot you dead’. Room to move. Self aware computers. E-Z space flight. Time travel. UNIVERSE TRAVEL! If you’re in THIS SF universe you can visit the others! We have a WINNER! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334/20 "2004-05-21T20:38:58Z")
The Empire of Man as envisioned by Niven/Pournelle. Right when the “Mote” is discovered. Should be interesting. Aw, heck, actually Barsoom for me too! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-sci-fi-universe-would-you-live-in/246334.md?page=2)