We are living in science fiction's true Golden Age

As I've written numerous times before, science fiction fans and critics worry a lot about whether science fiction is dead or dying. Some suggest that since we're living in the future we predicted, then we are now living in a post-science fiction era. Just look at all those science fiction words that are used by the mainstream. Isn't that evidence enough that SF is finished?

Hang on, one second. At least one observer believes that some of this thinking stems from the fact that some dolt dubbed the earliest decades of science fiction as "The Golden Age." How can the genre get any better if its best days are behind it? It must be dying, no?

Actually, if you stop to analyze how science fiction has pervaded all corners of popular culture, you could argue that it is far from dead and that we are, in fact, living in a true Golden Age of science fiction.

It's certainly been a banner year for science fiction movies, perhaps one of the best in decades.

Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein are usually considered the big three from the original Golden Age. I wonder who will emerge as this era's equivalents or is it impossible for a small group of authors to dominate a genre in a similar fashion today?