Our aim as SF writers is to make the reader think. We want to do more than just write an entertaining yarn. We want to say something about our world. Often the things we want to say are rooted in our own passions and beliefs, and that brings us to the subject of themes.
You have a viewpoint on the subject you're writing about, and that will help you to identify and refine the theme of your work. When you've identified it you then have to work out how it will play out in the story you have in mind. Does your theme mean you need to have a certain kind of antagonist for your protagonist to put his views to, or work against?
The stronger the link your story has with the current world, the more likely you are to get the reader thinking about the consequences of your tale. How will global warming affect the creatures that live on the Earth? Our centuries-old property-owning laws might have to be ditched. We might have to become nomadic again, moving with the seasons to survive.
How would a nomadic culture preserve its tech? Would it be able to? Sure, we have lightweight mobile devices today, but we also have massive server installations to power the networks we use them on. What if we'd already gone a fair way along the path to becoming cyborgs, with inplants that connect our minds to the nets. We already have concerns about the power of our social networks. How much more traumatised would people be if that connection acted like a drug and it began to break down?
The questions we ask at the start of the novel to establish our theme help us to work out the consequences of the changes we make to the universe. And establishing our theme, knowing what question we want to explore, helps us to keep on track and reveal our theme in ways that get readers to see our arguments without preaching to them.
Theme gives your work a backbone, and avoids your story sliding into a Star Trek lookalike.
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