2. What is Science Fiction?
• Difficult to define
• Futuristic scenarios with different technology
different social structure and or different
species
3. “Fantasy is the impossible made
probable. Science Fiction is the
improbable made possible.”
-Rod Sterling
4. Characteristics of Science Fiction:
• Explores the question “What if?”
• Based in the probable (especially hard science
fiction)
• Often involves application of true scientific
principles
• Explores the impact new technologies and social
constructs would have on society, as well as the
problems and benefits of those things
5. Sub Genres of Science Fiction
• Apocalyptic, Holocaust, and Post Apocalyptic
• Cyberpunk
• First Contact
• Hard Science Fiction
• Military Science Fiction
• Near Future Science Fiction
• Science Fantasy
• Space Opera
• Time Travel
• Alternate History
6. Hard Science Fiction
• Driven by ideas rather than characterization
• Uses plausible science and technology
• Author generally has a good grasp on science
• Isaac Asimov—Phd in Biochemistry
• Foundation- Isaac Asimov
7. Soft/social Science Fiction
• Character driven
• Emphasizes social change
• Emphasizes how technologies affect societies
rather than the technologies themselves
• Suzanne Collins- The Hunger Games
8. Cyberpunk
• Setting is high-tech
• Deals with computers and hackers
• Humans often live in a virtual environment
• The Diamond Age—Neal Stephenson
9. Apocalyptic, Post Apocalyptic
• Takes place while the world is ending or right
after the end of the world
• Focuses on societies reaction to the
circumstances
• Lucifer’s Hammer –Larry Niven
10. Science Fiction Comes True!
• Nuclear Subs predicted in Jules Verne’s 2000
Leagues Under the Sea
• Test tube babies in Aldous Huxley’s A Brave
New World
• Public Surveillance in George Orwell’s 1984
• Moon landing and space travel Jules Verne’s
From the Earth to the Moon
11. Science Fiction Authors
• Jules Verne
• H. G Wells
• Robert Heinlein
• Ray Bradbury
• Neal Shusterman
• Suzanne Collins
• James Dashner
• Ursula K. LeGuin
18. “When he tired of official reports and memoranda and
minutes, he would plug in his foolscap-size newspad
into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest
reports from Earth. One by one he would conjure up
the world’s major electronic papers…Switching to the
display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the
front page while he quickly searched the headlines and
noted the items that interested him. Each had its own
two-digit reference; when he punched that, the
postage-stamp-size rectangle would expand until it
neatly filled the screen and he could read it with
comfort. When he had finished, he would flash back to
the complete page and select a new subject for
detailed examination…”
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1965)
20. “And in her ears the little seashells, the
thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic
ocean of sound, of music and talk and music
and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of
her unsleeping mind.”
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1950)
22. Stepping to the Telephot on the side of the wall, he
pressed a group of buttons and in a few minutes the
faceplate of the Telephot became luminous, revealing
the face of a clean-shaven man about thirty, a pleasant
but serious face.
As soon as he recognized the face of Ralph in his own
Telephot, he smiled and said, “Hello, Ralph.”
“Hello, Edward. I wanted to ask you if you could come
over to the laboratory tomorrow morning. I have
something unusually interesting to show you. Look!”
He stepped to one side of his instrument so that his
friend could see the apparatus on the table about ten
feet from the Telephot faceplate.
Ralph 124C 41 + by Hugo Gernsback
24. • How could you benefit from reading Science
Fiction?
• It has been argued that Science Fiction has
more merit than other genre fiction like
mysteries or romance, do you agree or
disagree?
