Tyler Cowen asks: "Why do libertarians love science fiction?"

He provides several possible answers, and there are more interesting ideas in the comments. It's also worth noting that not only do libertarians tend to like SF, but a disproportionate number of top SF writers have been libertarians (e.g. - Robert Heinlein, L. Neil Smith, Larry Niven, etc.). As one of those libertarians who do indeed love science fiction, I would be interested to see a study that examined the competing explanations rigorously to see which of them hold up.

Of course I also like fantasy literature even more than SF, despite the fact that it has much less ideological affinity with libertarianism, and many fewer libertarian writers. For a fascinating exploration of libertarian themes in today's most popular fantasy series, see this article by U of Tennessee lawprof Ben Barton.

UPDATE: I have corrected an earlier error in identifying Ben Barton's institutional affiliation.