Science fiction and thoughts
Posted by Steven Savage on July 11, 2009
I just finished watching the Torchwood miniseries (no spoilers, but I was quite impressed), and it had me thinking on just what science-fiction is.
One of the issues of the last few decades is science-fiction is often conflated with action-adventure. I would argue this is really a case of science-ficiton settings and elements being used in an action-adventure story (the new Trek movie is a case in point). Science fiction itself, soft and hard, often revolves around the idea of SPECULATION, when its used as more than windowdressing.
It's a case of what if, usually centered around technology and/or time-driven changes. What if we meet aliens, travel faster than light, invent this, wait 1000 years, etc.
Science Fiction is a "what if" centered around technology and change. I'd like to see more of that hard and soft (I often feel it's being left to the hard science fiction).
- Steve, aka X
Jackie said
Often Science Fiction ‘assumes the present science/technology will continue – did anyone predict ‘hot planet Venus’, most people having ‘several’ computers (mobile phones, DVD players, cameras, games consols etc as well as conventional machines), the Internet etc.