Science fiction is never about the future, in the same way history is rarely about the past: they're both parable formats for examining or commenting on the present.
I consider myself an essayist and a fiction writer. In the essays, I certainly have been influenced by some of the leading science essayists. Like Loren Eiseley, Stephen Jay Gould, Lewis Thomas.
In fiction writing, I would say there are several different strands that have been woven through my own writing, and each influenced by a different group of writers.