A frequent topic of conversation on SFSN involves the merits (or lack thereof) of new sci-fi series or movies.\u00a0 In the broader universe of sci-fidom, some believe that that good science fiction must be based on only reasonable extrapolations of current scientific knowledge.\u00a0 Others, myself
\nincluded, believe that many of the best sci fi stories are those that start off with one seemingly outlandish premise, then surround it with reasonable science or science extrapolations (a concept that I believe was expressed by Asimov, although I’ve not been able to track down a quote). From an entertainment perspective, either benchmark can be a reasonable criterion for rating science fiction. However, I submit that the stories that fall into the second category are more interesting because of their potential to “create” a future.<\/p>\n
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Many science fiction writers will say that they aren’t trying to predict the future (as Ben Bova recently opined “…most of us don\u2019t believe there is a \u201cthe future\u201d to predict. The future isn\u2019t inevitable, immutable. It\u2019s created, moment by moment, by the things we do. Or fail to do.”).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What more reasonable speculative fiction can do is shape the future.\u00a0 While there are few explicit acknowledgments of science fiction leading to specific research or technological advances (Martin Cooper crediting the Star Trek communicator as his inspiration for the cell phone is one), one wonders how many advances were the result of inspiration derived from reading science fiction.<\/p>\n
So many of the things we take for granted today were considered outlandish propositions by many when they first appeared in science fiction: beam weapons (lasers and particle beams) in E.E. Doc Smith’s Lensman series, the atomic bombs of H.G.Wells (The World Set Free<\/em>), Asimov’s proto-wireless internet in The Last Question<\/em>, and Heinlein’s six dimension parallel universe space (most notably in The Number of the Beast<\/em>), to name a few that immediately come to mind.\u00a0 All have their counterparts in either technology or scientific theory today.\u00a0 Were these stories merely prescient, or more in line with Bova’s perspective, catalysts for the Butterfly effect?\u00a0 Would our recent scientific and technological history be different if these authors (and others like them) had chosen different pursuits or had put forth different ideas?\u00a0 As a scientist and a life-long reader of science fiction, I know that much of my “out of the box” thinking has been shaped by the alternate paths I was introduced to in my reading.<\/p>\n The point of all this rambling?\u00a0 Just that I believe that science fiction that coherently breaks the bounds of conventional thinking\u00a0 can be good science fiction–and good entertainment.\u00a0\u00a0 But that still doesn’t excuse “things” (for lack of a better term) like Mega Python vs. Gatoroid!<\/p>\nShare this:<\/h3>
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