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Curious what the latest theories in science fiction are regarding anti-gravity devices. Over the years there have been many attempts to write such devices into fiction. I’d love to hear how contemporary stories tackle the issue. Has this become something relegated to “soft” science fiction only (e.g. repulsorlifts in Star Wars), or are there new ideas based on our current understanding of how gravity works?
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Anti-gravity is very soft indeed. It will remain so unless something surprising is discovered in physics, i.e., don’t hold your breath.
Gravity is essential the result of an attraction between two bodies by the way they distort space time. ITs not clear how that could be reversed. Especially in the convenient deck by deck example in most scifi ship. Its just such an easy device, ESPECIALLY for visual media that it is ubiquitous. Some people (as in the Expanse) use magnetic boots sometimes, but theyre still not as easy as 'antigrav floors'.
There was one great situation in Banks' Consider Phlebas where a ships crew go down to an Orbital (spinning space ring thing). One of them then jumps over a railing expecting to drop down a 100 feet and use his antigrav backpack to slow his fall. However Orbitals dont use mass to create gravity, they use spin to create a false gravity and the antigrav backpack cant work there. He falls to his death.
Barring the discovery of a new phenomenon, anti-gravity simply can't exist. Thus, anti-grav devices are a fundamentally different sort of speculation than devices based on known principles that accomplish things beyond what we can now (like super-advanced computing), or devices based on unknown principles that accomplish things we hope are attainable (like fusion power generators).
Artificial gravity is often generated by graviton production. This is already quite impossible, as gravitons haven't been proven to actually exist, methods of their production are beyond our current science. Theoretically, you could put such a device above you, set it to Earth's mass and reach a relative 0g.
If negative mass matter exists somewhere in the universe... well, that would make things easier. Put it into tanks and strap to some vehicle - low tech antigravity reached. How you attain such matter, well... that's the hard part. Assuming it exists - it generates tones of dark energy, it might be invisible and even move faster than light. Try to catch it (good luck). It might be possible to produce it, but I absolutely don't know how.