Zane Selvans
@ZaneSelvans@social.coop  路  activity timestamp 13 hours ago

Anybody have good recommendations for stories that depict Earth and human civilization post peak population? Not due to a catastrophe, just a peaceful demographic slide to <1 billion people, because we had fewer kids. A surplus of aging infrastructure, & nature filling in the gaps. Seems like it would be a good candidate for the "cozy" sci-fi genre @molly0xfff talked about recently.

Captain Button
@cptbutton@dice.camp replied  路  activity timestamp 12 hours ago
@ZaneSelvans @molly0xfff

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (lit. 'Yokohama Shopping Log') is a manga also published in English.

It is set in a world some decades in the future. Sea levels have risen, human pop. has greatly decreased. Where, how, and why the humans have gone is never clear. Not centuries, there are leftover buildings and equipment that haven't decayed enough to fit.

A "cozy" sci-fi story. Robot comes to run a coffee shop whose owner has left. Heartwarming stuff with locals.
Bruh-soka Tano
@Karstan@urbanists.social replied  路  activity timestamp 12 hours ago
@ZaneSelvans @molly0xfff The Void Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton has elements of this? Though it's only a tertiary plot point to the series. FWIW, the trilogy is a sequel to a prior series, The Commonwealth Saga, and both series have some... problems typical of scifi written by older, white men.

If you can look past the problems, it's got some interesting concepts though!