Matt Webb on Asimov’s Foundation, and what’s unique about science fiction:

Like any scientific endeavour it starts as a phenomenological exercise: what’s happening? How does this thing behave in various circumstances? Then beginning to probe: what are its limits? How do we break the premise? And finally consequences… what does it mean for this phenomenon to be wielded deliberately; what are the second order effects when others can see the effects …and so on. Dynamical systems are all the same; the reader can readily draw parallels and discover new truths.

Writing is thinking. Sci-fi, at its best, is thinking about an idea taken to its end. Most sci-fi is a miss, but every once in a while it describes upcoming realities with absolute clarity, e.g. Neuromancer.