SCIENCE FICTION A GENRE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION TYPICALLY

SCIENCE FICTION A GENRE OF SPECULATIVE FICTION TYPICALLY DEALING WITH IMAGINATIVE CONCEPTS RELATED TO SCIENCE, SPACE, TIME, AND EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

SCIENCE FICTION • Was a singular source of scientific wonder and discovery that inspired generations of scientists and engineers to pursue in reality what they had dreamed about in their youth.

PURPOSE OF SCIENCE FICTION • While it often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations, good science fiction avoids the supernatural. • Science fiction has a grounding in actual science. • • This is now known as Hard Science Fiction. Soft science fiction appeared in the 1970 s and emphasizes the social aspects of the characters rather than science and technology.

WHERE DID THE TERM SCIENCE FICTION ORIGINATE? • Hugo Gernsback, an editor and creator of Science Fiction magazines, created the term in the early 1920 s. • He included authors such as Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and Edgar Allen Poe in his list of authors who write science fiction.

GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION 1938 – 1946 SCIENCE FICTION GAINED WIDE PUBLIC ATTENTION MANY CLASSIC SCIENCE FICTION STORIES WERE PUBLISHED MOSTLY SHORT STORIES IN PULP MAGAZINES THEN AUTHORS SUCH AS JOHN W. CAMPBELL, ISAAC ASIMOV, JAMES BLISH, ARTHUR C. CLARKE, AND RAY BRADBURY BEGAN NOT ONLY TO WRITE FULL LENGTH NOVELS, BUT NOVEL SERIES

WOMEN AND ETHNIC SCI FI WRITERS • Until the late 20 th century, American Science Fiction was considered a white man’s world. • • The first African American Sci Fi writer was Octavia Estella Butler (1947 -2006) • Not until the 1950 s and 1960 s were female sci fi authors recognized in the United States (Joanna Russ and Ursula K. Le. Guin) • Most American ethnic writers did not begin to write sci fi until the last 20 th/early 21 st century The first woman considered to be a Sci Fi writer was British – Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) in 1818

SCIENCE FICTION IS WRITING RATIONALLY ABOUT ALTERNATIVE POSSIBLE WORLDS AND FUTURES

CHARACTERISTICS • Temporal settings in the future, in alternative timelines, or in a historical past that contradicts known facts of history or the archeological record. • Spatial settings or scenes in outer space, on other worlds, or on subterranean earth. • Characters that include aliens, mutants, robots, enhanced humans, and other predicted or imagined beings • Speculative or predicted technology such as ray guns and other advanced weapons, teleportation, brain-computer interface, bioengineering, neuroprosthetics, superintelligent computers, and other.

CHARACTERISTICS • Scientific principles that are new or that contradict accepted physical laws, for example time travel and faster-than-light travel or communication. • New and different political and social systems and situations, including utopian, dystopian, post-scarcity, or post-apocalyptic. • Future history and evolution of humans on earth or on other planets. • Paranormal abilities such as mind control, telepathy, and telekinesis. • Other universes or dimensions, and travel between them.

HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION • 2 nd century AD – Syrian satirist Lucian wrote A True Story which included travel to other worlds and extraterrestrial life forms. • 17 th century • • Francis Bacon’s The New Atlantis (1627) • Margaret Cavendish’s “The Blazing World” (1666) Cyrano de Bergerac’s Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657)

HISTORY OF SCIENCE FICTION • 18 th century • Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) • 19 th century • • Jules Verne H. G. Wells Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1826) Edgar Allen Poe short stories

THE THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS • Robots became major characters in the Golden Age. Robots and intelligent computers are two different things in science fiction. Isaac Asimov created an ethical system for humans and robots that still influences the characterization of robots by authors today. • 1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; • 2) A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; and • 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.