Science Fiction

1
Science Fiction

• Genre and Concerns

2
Familiar Science Fiction

• Star Wars
• Star Trek
• 2001 A Space Odyssey
• Independence Day
• I, Robot
• Men in Black
• Terminator
• The Matrix
• Jurassic Park

3
What do these stories all have in common?

• Setting the future
• Advanced technology
• genetic engineering, intelligent robots,
• experimental medicine
• Concerned with outer space
• aliens, space travel, other planets and solar
  systems
• Paranormal Phenomena and the Occult
• ESP, telekinesis, psychics

4
Sci Fi vs. Fantasy

• Science fiction is based in fact some of the
  technology is invented, some of the places are
  made up, but all of it is conceivable.
• Fantasy is not based in reality it is purely
  imaginative.
• Consider Will Smith vs. Harry Potter

Versus
5
Its all about the What if

• Authors chose to write in the science fiction
  genre because it allows them to reflect upon
  different scenarios in the future, based on
  whats happening today.
• Science fiction allows us to investigate our
  societys fears, dilemmas and concerns if we take
  a certain course of action, or if we keep doing
  things the way that we are.

6
Why SciFi?

• Makes us consider the emotional, psychological,
  and physical effects of futuristic ideas,
  conflict and change.
• Encourages us to keep an open mind to consider
  unlimited possibilities.
• Provokes questions regarding other forms of life,
  thereby bringing our own into perspective.
• Stimulates curiosity and the capacity for
  invention.
• Presents the reader with moral and ethical
  dilemmas that correspond to the real world.

7
History of Childhoods End

• Author Arthur C. Clarke
• -renowned Science Fiction author
• Published in 1953
• History
• -On the brink of the Space Race
• -The end of the British Empire and Colonialism
• -Pre-Civil Rights Movement
• Technology
• -The first color TV went on sale in the US for
  1,175
• -New York introduced the first 3-color stop
  lights

8
Sci Fi Elements in Childhoods End

• Setting the future
• - the beginning of the 21st century
• -50 years later, the middle of the 21st C
• Concern with Outer Space
• -Aliens
• -Humans have been to the moon havent yet
  traveled
• the whole solar system
• Advanced Technology
• -advanced communications, speedy travel
• Paranormal Phenomena
• -ESP and psychic experiences, the Ouija board,
• The Overmind