Why Reading Science Fiction is a Categorical Imperative

From J.M. McDermott:

...you see, if we can't get off world, all other moral issues are irrelevant. who cares about the abortion debate if *all* of our unborn children will be killed from the inevitable supernova? Some of them may live longer than the others, but all of them will die if we can't get off world.

freedom if ideas to be shared, science, math, networks and social networks, and innovation are all morally good. they will help us as a species create viable colonies off world.

religions that hinder science, political policies that limit the access to ideas, and social policies that limit the scientific education of young people who could be solving the problems that will get us off-world are all bad. very, very bad. the more such things hinder our ability to exceed the blast radius of one supernova, the worse they are.

for this reason, i have also decided that science fiction is the most morally correct form of literature. it is the only form of literature that has, for generations, concerned itself with the ultimate survival of the species by grappling with the paradigms that will shape our life, or our death...