The Blocks World Building in Science Fiction Texts

Imagined Worlds – the landscape and nature Cognitive – What we recognise as real Estrangement – elements that strive beyond the real – the ‘Nova’ • Eg. The sand on the planet Dune – the ripples, the colour, the vastness. • • • Eg. The existence of the worms. • • •

Imagined Worlds - Society We can consider how a society works through: The values: beliefs/ Hierarchy/ class Law, justice and religions/ family systems/ ruling policing structures/ bodies racial groupings

Developments in Technology Extrapolated development Current technology Resulting technology in this new world. The impact it may have on our world as projected in the new.

Technological Development Extrapolated Technologies of this World: Degree of Acceptance of this technology by: • The society of the imagined world • The protagonist (may be similar or different to the general society) • The responder in light of their own personal context

Imagined Worlds that speculate. . . Composer’s contextual concerns/ values An imagined world that outlines the composer’s vision of where the world is headed. “What if. . ? ” Projected world in which the concerns/ values becomes manifested

Speculation becomes a ‘Distorted Mirror’ Human Form – eg. becomes artificially integrated with machine so much that individual body parts control themselves Morality – eg. Cloned body parts are only available for the rich – the poor are marginalised and rich and poor are further polarised “What if. . ? ” – the ramifications for humanity. What will developments in technology reveal about where our own world is headed? Eg. Developments in cloning body parts may lead to. . . Behaviour – eg. High cost of body parts for survival leads to a black market - body part crime becomes a major aspect of this world at the cost of a total disregard for the sanctity of human life Power – the multinational companies that own the rights to cloned body parts have obtained totalitarian power over the major states of the world

The Distorted Mirror allows us to reflect on. . . Current world issues such as war, Global Financial Crisis, climate change. . . The morality behind unchecked advances in science and technology: stem cell research, arms development, cloning. . . Societal issues of race/ culture/ religion through alien beings, mutated/ evolved humans. . .

So, the Building Blocks of imagined worlds are: Society: Physical Landscape • Hierarchy • Justice • Values Technological Developments Impact of technology on: Composer’s Contextual Concerns/ Values Relationship between humanity and technology • Human Form • Morality • Behaviour • Power