I came across some typed up notes from a previous session of life universe and everything. Here are the notes on Using history in SF/F

• Recast historical events as science-fiction.
• Draw from family history incidents for historical fiction or science-fiction parallels.
• Don’t get trapped into the idea of “Write which you know.” In many cases that’s not possible with science-fiction. Take things that are common to the human condition (and perhaps your own experience) and extrapolate trends to the venue of your story.
• Research, if sufficiently in-depth, can replace personal experience.
• If you do historical fiction, no matter how careful you are you are there are people who find every minor flaw and point it out to you.
• Don’t always trust your memory. Check out historical events from dependable sources.
• Establish a story and your characters well enough in the reader will often forget a few historical errors.
• Remember that within a couple of hundred miles in a given geological setting, you’ll find a wide range of experience going on all the time.
• To draw from primary sources (preferable photographs) when trying on archaeology as a resource. Social history tends to be slanted to ‘the winners’.
• Knowledge and understanding of environment has declined as we have increased our capacity to modify the environment to our needs.

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