Sorry for the tangent, but this is one of the biggest missing ingredients in science fiction and fantasy today, in my opinion. It is really, really captivating

Sorry for the tangent, but this is one of the biggest missing ingredients in science fiction and fantasy today, in my opinion. It is really, really captivating to get into the head of someone who thinks differently from you at a very fundamental level. But so much of what I see is just mindlessly regurgitating our modern assumptions. What I'd really love to see is fiction that takes this level of depth and applies it to hypothetical cultures. It seems to be that could be really awesome.