Short answer: I don’t know, exactly.
I can speculate on quite a few paths and I recognize that some of them will clearly come to pass. We’ve seen a surge of eco-sci fi driven by the understanding that our planet is a far more fragile thing than we gave it credit for. Given the recent election I suspect a resurgence of poli-sci fi in which those who have a stake in state affairs are manipulated and manipulate the people into narrowcasted flashes of choice. I see a story of my own one day popping up that talks about hyper-gerrymandering in a way that could be compared to the way we play the stock market and the way we openly gamble on sports teams…
In fact I’m building that story in my head right now. It feels like a comedy but it feels far too real to be funny.
Another area is that of near-earth asteroid mining. Given the appearance of Oumuamua, we can expect at least a small cadre of writers to seize on this and turn it into story of some form. We’ve done great things in the asteroid mining story space, but to add the unusual intergalactic nature to this and perhaps not make it about hostile alien or even alien at all life would be interesting.
Just some brief thoughts on this cold evening. Goodnight, dear readers.