What is science fiction?

Question

What do YOU think science fiction is? Fantasy? Fiction? Do you think it could be a prediction of the future?

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

Good science fiction is speculative fiction. It takes a problem or issue from the present and projects it into the future to show or warn people what will happen if we proceed on our present course.

There are subdivisions of science fiction including my personal favorite cyberpunk popularized by William Gibson and Neal Stephenson which focuses on high tech and low life and often includes computerhackers, AI, man against giant corporation etc, The Matrix uses many cyberpunk devices. Pax - C

Answer 2

Yes, Science Fiction can be all of the things that you mentioned.

It is basically fiction that is usually set in a futuristic time and place, with an emphasis on science (things like biology, anatomy, astronomy, and many other things).

Sometimes, there can be fictional alien races (like in Star Wars, which is arguably the most popular sci-fi series out there) and several fights in spaceships (think Star Trek).

However, this isn't all that sci-fi is limited to. Like you mentioned in your question details, science-fiction might be a prediction of the future, maybe having something to do with an apocalypse or advanced space exploration or something.
But there can also be a significant political message behind it, as well, even though it might be a bit vague. For example, in one of the Star Wars movies (I forget which one--I think it might be Episode 2), there is a large group of Republic soldiers marching in unison. Interestingly enough, when I saw this, I thought of Hitler's Nazi soldiers marching...

Well, enough about that. If you are interested in sci-fi, there are several video games, novels, and movies for you to play,read, and watch if you're up to it.

Hope this helps!!! =)

Source(s):

My head

Answer 3

Science fiction is a broad genre of fiction that often involves speculations based on current or future science or technology. Science-fiction books, magazines, film, TV, gaming and fannish materialIn organizational or marketing contexts, science fiction can be synonymous with the broader definition of speculative fiction, encompassing creative works incorporating imaginative elements not found in contemporary reality; this includes fantasy, horror, and related genres.

Science fiction differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within established or postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation).

cheers :)

Source(s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fic…

Answer 4

science fiction is anything where a large part of the book is about science, real or future imaginary science. set in the future or another planet/universe/alternative universe.

it can predict the future, like brave new world.

usually the genre is associated with things like star wars, star trek, etc...

Answer 5

Science fiction is merely a story in which fictional science has a role. Some are quite "predictive" - Jules Verne's writings, for example. Some are complete hokey - much of the great scifi of the early 1900s, for example. (I remember one with "ether" drives - the space ships used an "ether screw" to travel between the 8 (or was it 7?) planets). There are *considerable* scientific fallacies in nearly every scifi film and TV series, although some are notably more in-line with current scientific theory than others (Babylon 5, for example).

Jim, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.com

Answer 6

The good ones are predictions to a degree because they combine fantasy with technical ability and extrapolated cause and effect.
Asimov's robots are certainly close.
Arthur C. Clarke often hit it on the head.
Hal Clemens may be realized further down the road.
Frank Herbert's Dune could become reality in a more distant future. The revolt against the machines may happen if enough of us survive the global warming and realize that our dependence on technology has become a negative adaptation. We have devolved as a group to become too dependent on devices and haven't focused enough on psychological adaptation.

Source(s):

Used to be an addict

Answer 7

I think science fiction can predict the future sometimes.
Watch the first series of Star Trek and look at their communicators. Don't they look like something everyone has today?

:-)

Answer 8

My own definition is this: Science fiction is the mainstream literature of a plausible alternative reality. That is to say, it is stories told as if to people already familiar with the story's milieu, but that milieu is one the author has contrived but could exist (or, in the case of alternate history stories, could have existed). If a story is set on a Martian colony in the year 3000 A.D., it's told as if the reader is already a member of that colony, or at least lives in a reality in which such a colony is well known (just as a mainstream novel for an American audience might in fact be set in modern Australia).

This is part of the special joy of science fiction: the reader, of course, isn't actually familiar with the milieu, and loves the process of picking up clues, artfully salted by the author, as to what the nature of the setting really is. But the skilled SF author will not stop to flat-out explicate things his or her reader, were they really contemporaries of the story's characters, would actually know.

I use the phrase "alternate reality," rather than simply calling SF "the mainstream literature of the future," in part because of the large body of work known as "alternate history" or "parallel-worlds stories," which are usually considered part of science fiction.

My definition seeks to define SF as a storytelling mode, rather than by listing an arbitrary series of tropes (spaceships, time travel, aliens), and I think it does a good job of accurately encompassing most work in the field. Of course, there are always exceptions, but I've found this definition has served me well over the years.

To your second point, yes, science fiction might sometimes predict the future, but that is rarely its intent. Just as often, as Ray Bradbury has said, it's job is to PREVENT the future. If accurate prediction were the criterion of good SF, we'd have to say that George Orwell's NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR was an abysmal failure because the real year 1984 turned out nothing like his prediction. But in fact Orwell's novel was a resounding success because its warning call helped us to keep the future it portrayed from becoming reality.

Robert J. Sawyer
Best Novel Hugo Award winner for HOMINIDS
http://sfwriter.com

Answer 9

The common definition of sci-fi relates to science and fantasy, which I think is completely silly. Who ever heard of a hobbit in the scientific world? I think fantasy should have it's own genre, as I like fantasy and not sci-fi (aliens, futuristic, outerspace, etc.) so much. I think in many cases it is. From what I hear, Isaac Asimov's 3 laws of robotics are used in robot production now. (They are making them, I saw them in our newspaper, believe it or not!) I think the imaginative come up with the idea, and the constructive give it life. Not all sci fi comes true, but a lot has.

Answer 10

It's aliens and stuff.

Anything that is made up and has a scientific element to it.