Science fiction easily lends itself to incisive cynicism about our future. It's understandable. Sci-fi is just one tool creators have to pull out today's big issues and blow them up into a scenario that we can consider from a distance. Still, too much grim introspection creates a feedback loop of depression when breakthroughs happen. We begin to think about robot apocalypses and unstoppable viruses, tech magnates going supervillain, and "Black Mirror" episodes coming true. Sometimes our...