The term science fiction is a paradox - science deals with truth and hard facts, and fiction is imaginary. But creativity is one of the most important inputs for innovation and research.
Science fiction is a genre of often futuristic or fantastical ideas. Some science fiction books or movies invent entire worlds, like the Star Wars franchise. Others might take place in our world but hundreds of years in the future, like Jules Verne’s Paris in the Twentieth Century or the 2008 movie WALL-E.
Jules Verne wrote during the late 19th century, but his books were tens and hundreds of years ahead of the time. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was published in 1827. In this novel Verne wrote about an electric submarine called the Nautilus that was pretty much self-sufficient. The submarine could produce drinking water from seawater, come up to the ocean surface to take in oxygen, and adjust its depth with buoyancy tanks. The USS Nautilus, built during the 1950s and the first working submarine to run on nuclear power, was named after Verne’s submarine. Verne was not a scientist, and he was not an inventor; he was a writer. But his stories were the inspiration for many explorers and researchers, and he is one of the most translated authors in the world. I recommend Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth for a short adventure tale guided by the study of anthropology, paleontology, and many other - ologies.
Imagining future scientific research and technology will always seem unrealistic and magical, because our imagination can only go so far. What is normal right now- things like organ transplants, the Internet, artificial intelligence, and so on - is far out of the imaginations of people a couple hundred years ago, even a few decades ago. Science fiction helps us reach farther, to think about the consequences of our actions, and how much control we have over the future. And who knows- maybe the things we write, film, and dream about now could be invented in the next century. Roey Tzezana speaks about this point of view in the Ted-Ed video, “How science fiction can help predict the future.” Science fiction is fun to read, but it is also a thoughtful reflection on political, economic, and social circumstances.
Science fiction is often set in unrealistic worlds with completely made up science. But this is exactly why it is a great genre. When we read about crazy things happening in worlds that only vaguely resemble our own, to characters that we can relate to, we think more openly about our own place in this world. Most protagonists in science fiction stories are part of the resistance to an evil regime, or saving the world from a natural disaster, or a scientist on the hunt for a revolutionary discovery. Everyone has a purpose, and some measure of power over what the future will be.
If you’re like me, a bit intimidated by the expanse of scientific theories, philosophy, politics, or economics that we have access to today, science fiction is a great way to explore these fields. Maybe science fiction is escapism, but readers escape into worlds that are not so different from our own.
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Resources
Evans, A. B. (2022, March 20). Jules Verne | Biography & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jules-Verne
TED-Ed. (2016, January 26). How science fiction can help predict the future - Roey Tzezana [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paXKoZ1pr5w
TEDx Talks. (2017, May 3). Science Fiction: Teaching Students How to Save the World | Joelle Renstrom | TEDxWalthamED [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed8OeZcOBI
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, March 27). USS Nautilus (SSN-571). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)