The future depicted in a good SF story ought to be in fact possible, or at least plausible. That means that the writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true... and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of plausibility in science fiction writing, where the future portrayed should be believable.
Frederik Pohl's quote highlights the essential quality of science fiction: that it needs to present a future that is not only imaginative but also possible or plausible. The writer's task is to engage the reader's belief in the potential reality of the depicted wonders, which becomes a complex challenge when one reflects critically on the current state of the world. This invites both the writer and the reader to consider the boundaries between imagination and reality.
In practice
In a panel discussion about literature, I might quote this to highlight the responsibilities of science fiction authors.
Taking bold action on climate change simply makes good business sense. It's also the right thing to do for people and the planet. Setting a net-zero GHG emissions target by 2050 will drive innovation, grow jobs, build prosperity, and secure a better world for what will soon be 9 billion people.
No longer is science asked to understand the world, or to improve any part of it. It is asked instead to immediately justify everything that happens... spectacular domination has cut down the vast tree of scientific knowledge in order to make itself a truncheon.
It is always noteworthy that all those who seriously study this science [the theory of numbers] conceive a sort of passion for it.
The human race has a yearning to explore. That's part of our biological and psychological makeup.
Forging differs from hoaxing, inasmuch as in the later the deceit is intended to last for a time, and then be discovered, to the ridicule of those who have credited it; whereas the forger is one who, wishing to acquire a reputation for science, records observations which he has never made.
We can't any longer have the conventional understanding of genetics which everybody peddles because it is increasingly obvious that epigenetics - actually things which influence the genome's function - are much more important than we realised.
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