I'm not sure if today's SF writers are so much pessimistic as REALISTIC. Realism means that there would be good and bad in any vision of the future-and maybe more bad than good. As Mr. Housman put it:
Quote:
Therefore, since the world has still
Much good, but much less good than ill,
And while the sun and moon endure
Luck’s a chance, but trouble’s sure,
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From the POV of the early SF writers of the 1920s and 30s , the current world looks like a dream come true , but from the POV of a Congolese peasant or even someone living in the Fukishima Prefecture, things are far from perfect.
Frankly, I'm not sure that the SF writers of the past were all that "happy-clappy". Isaac Asimov was the virtual poster child of the techno-optimist but even his universe featured war, imperialism, societal collapse, etc.