That would depend on your idea of ‘over done.’ While Science Fiction started with the glory days of the space opera, things have changed over the decades. The idea of the world not being a pretty place in the future is something presented in many novels. Is it right? It is wrong? Totally depends on your viewpoint of how the world’s advancing. If you ask me, the dystopian future is more likely then a positive one.
With that said, should Sci Fi writers shy away from it? No. Any idea can be ‘over done’ depending on the person involved. In all honesty, there’s no real original ideas left anyway and we all borrow from other people when we write. However, that’s neither here nor there.
What matters is your viewpoint on things. If you believe in the ‘Blade Runner’ type future then by all means write a book that fits what you see. Don’t worry about what others think! You the writer have to write the story you have in mind and then make it commercially viable-not the critics. Keep that in mind when writing and learn to ignore the artistes.
Happy Writing.
Talia's World 
Writers are influenced by the times they live in. We live in a time of global warming (and those who try to deny it), rich getting richer, the poor ignored, governments spying on their citizens, democracies that seem fragile and fake and less and less trust in those people who run things.
Is it any wonder many of us have a dark view of the future?
Being that I’m one of those who don’t believe in Global Warming, mainly because the very next statement after is it: “The Government needs to…” That means it’s more about control then about ‘saving the environment’ and most people are too chickenshit to say what they believe. Comments I’ve seen in my local paper such as ‘we need to reduce eating meat to prevent Global Warming’ are the dumbest shit I’ve ever read in my life. I have a 135 IQ and can see through just about anything. If the poster wanted people to be vegetarian, then open your damn mouth and say so! Don’t try to hide behind “Global Warming” as is a lot of the movement.
Al Gore is now a billionaire from selling ‘Carbon Credits.’ How in the hell does THAT solve anything? It’s nothing more then a scam and until the scamming stops, then there’s no chance in hell I’ll ever believe in global warming.
And before people savage me, note the IQ number above. That puts me in the 98.6 percentile, which means I’m anything but dumb. I just can smell bullshit better than most people. So…once the scamming stops and the bullshit clears..then I might believe it. However, for now it’s all about giving government MORE control over your lives, which is the road to enslavement by companies, (and don’t think they’re not up to their armpits in what the governments do too), politicians and faceless bureaucrats.
I’d rather not be.
As much as I hate to say it, we’ll never eradicate the poor. Here in America, we’ve spent 17 TRILLION dollars-yes that’s right TRILLION-on the War on Poverty and the poverty rate is exactly the same as it was when LBJ started. Governments spying on us is out of control…groups targeted because they aren’t ‘politically correct.’ By the way, it’s damned hard to find it, but the term ‘political correctness’ actually started in the Soviet Union. It means your views were the ‘politically correct ones based off the orders/leadership of the government.’ Sounds familiar to now, by the way.
Governments are fragile because they’ve spent themselves into oblivion. I try to keep politics out of my blog, but we were 17 trillion in debt and will be 22 by 2016. That’s more then the entire economy produces! That’s what they call ‘unsustainable.’
I too believe in a dark future. I think that the entire world is headed down the path to enslavement to both a large, global government and the corporations that back them. Once that happens it’ll be generations, if not several centuries, before we free ourselves again.
Dark times indeed.