I've read many genres, and have written in several genres in both fiction and non-fiction, but my favorite is science fiction. It lets my mind think about current problems or notions in society as I write, and expand upon the concept to see what they might develop into in the far future. I've noticed a lot of science fiction does this by giving a warning we should be careful of what we wish for, but also giving the message we can achieve a goal if we strive for it. For instance, the inventor of the mobile phone, Martin Cooper, said he was inspired by Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek. Star Trek also displayed personal computers, laptops, bluetooth earbuds, GPS capabilities, and wide screen TVs. However, I'm still waiting for the instantaneous teleportation.
Right now current science and technology are evolving at an unprecedented rate and in many instances only speculation exists on what it might develop into in the future and how it will affect humanity. Not all of it leads to good news. Science fiction is largely, for me at least, basing the story on some aspect of that science.
The genre has problems. In some scifi I've read the 'science' transcends into fantasy rather than real or probable in the future of science. That is okay, I guess, because nothing is more fantastical than quantum physics and some of the theories proposed like the present possibly affecting the past.
Some readers ignore or scoff at scifi because it is only 'imaginary.' Yet thousands of years ago when oral story-telling first started, the story tellers had moral and mental growth messages about life even though they didn't know about psychology. Many of the characters found in fairy tales and mythology are beyond human, but the listeners/readers found them real, and learned how normal humans interacted with these deities and monsters. Today these stories are known to have strong psychological messages. Psychologist Carl Jung suggested many of the characters from these tales lived in our subconscious, which Joseph Campbell expanded into literature. Characters like the hero, the shadow, the anima/animus (gender orientation), the mentor, and the trickster. The same ideas affect most literature, including science fiction.
I think that is what science fiction should do: give warning and hope, expand the reader's 'normal' scope, and relate what is human. Of course, my scifi always has an element of romance, because humans remain human even in the future, as they have during the past thousands of years. If they didn't, then they would be a different species altogether.
Right now current science and technology are evolving at an unprecedented rate and in many instances only speculation exists on what it might develop into in the future and how it will affect humanity. Not all of it leads to good news. Science fiction is largely, for me at least, basing the story on some aspect of that science.
The genre has problems. In some scifi I've read the 'science' transcends into fantasy rather than real or probable in the future of science. That is okay, I guess, because nothing is more fantastical than quantum physics and some of the theories proposed like the present possibly affecting the past.
Some readers ignore or scoff at scifi because it is only 'imaginary.' Yet thousands of years ago when oral story-telling first started, the story tellers had moral and mental growth messages about life even though they didn't know about psychology. Many of the characters found in fairy tales and mythology are beyond human, but the listeners/readers found them real, and learned how normal humans interacted with these deities and monsters. Today these stories are known to have strong psychological messages. Psychologist Carl Jung suggested many of the characters from these tales lived in our subconscious, which Joseph Campbell expanded into literature. Characters like the hero, the shadow, the anima/animus (gender orientation), the mentor, and the trickster. The same ideas affect most literature, including science fiction.
I think that is what science fiction should do: give warning and hope, expand the reader's 'normal' scope, and relate what is human. Of course, my scifi always has an element of romance, because humans remain human even in the future, as they have during the past thousands of years. If they didn't, then they would be a different species altogether.
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