I take no credit for this idea. 

Wired magazine recently ran an article by Clive Thompson about how reality based fiction may have run its course, one book becoming a facsimile of the others before it.  Thompson theorizes that authors can better ponder the philosophical questions intrinsic to the human condition when they are freed by the unlimited scenarios in the science fiction genre.  

So, is science fiction the final frontier for the literary zeitgeist?