Science Fiction is Awesome

I’m a big sci-fi fan who has always been and will always be. Aside from the fact that 90% of the science fiction that I’ve come across has amazing stories (But we’ll get to that part), I have always been fascinated with the technology that science fiction brings forward. While I’m willing to bet that exactly NONE of you are shocked in the slightest by this revelation, bear with me here. A while back, I started thinking about how long we’ve had science fiction, so I started doing some research into it (yes, I’m THAT kind of nerd), and you would be amazed. I even looked through one book that said basically the start date for science fiction could entirely depend on when you define when science itself got started. Because science has changed so much, you could say that some stories we consider to be fantasy today could be regarded as science fiction a long time ago.

1) Technology has always been scary, for some reason – There have always been stories about the unknown. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Lost in Space, there has been fear of what we don’t know or don’t understand. This is where Science Fiction has come in. When we first started looking at the stars and wondering what could be, there has always been the belief that technology/the unknown should be frightening. It’s understandable; there are lots of things that I struggle with, and it can, on occasion, freak me out. When we first watched the Borg on Star Trek: The Next Generation, they were scary as hell. A species of cybernetic people whose whole deal was not only taking your technology but taking you and assimilating them into thier collective where your sense of self is stripped away from you? That was frightening. Interestingly, the more that the crew of the Enterprise (and then Voyager later) learned about the Borg, the less scary they became, and the more they were able to overcome that particular adversity. The unknown is always scary at first, but the trick is (certainly in the case of technology) that the more you learn about it, the less scary it becomes and the better you will be able to use it.

2) Science Fiction can tackle things society can’t – One of the best things about science fiction is that there are a great many different societal issues that can be discussed with relatively little consequence because 99% of the stuff that happens in science fiction doesn’t happen in real life anyway. We can’t teleport or go at warp speed, and so having some of the characters do the things that can’t be done in real life is an easy way to move society along. The biggest example of this is in the original Star Trek’s casting of Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura. At a time when equality between men and women (to say nothing of Black Vs vs. white), having an African American woman in such a prominent role was a massive move forward. In a different “Social Commentary” moment, when the Opioid epidemic was getting bad in the late 1990s, the TV show Stargate SG-1 tackled the issue in an episode called “Need,” where one of the main characters becomes addicted to using a Sarcophagus, which is supposed to heal injuries, but for a healthy person is makes them act arrogant, irrational and totally out of character. Once the other main characters are able to get him home, his withdrawal symptoms seem to be frighteningly realistic. They were able to do this because it wasn’t “real drug addiction,” but it did shine a light on the drug issue.

3) The Apocalypse that Never Comes – One common theme from technology in Sci-fi is the belief that one day, technology will take over every aspect of our lives and eventually realize that humanity is no longer needed (visa vi The Matrix). For as long as there has been science fiction, there have been predictions of doom. Some of the more modern examples are Lost in Space, where the characters have to evacuate the planet because we’ve messed up this one, and The Day after Tomorrow, where, because of a climate shift, everything freezes over, and it’s a battle to simply survive. These examples (and many more) take on the subject matter of Environmental conservation and our role in destroying the planet. What’s interesting about most of these disaster films is that they take place in the future, but not too far in the future. For example, the movie Lost in Space was released in 1998 and takes place in 2058, so I suppose there is a chance to fix that. Johnny Mnemonic was released in 1995 and took place in 2021 right after a global pandemic hit….which….in fairness…. *Gestures at the world at large.* The thing about “the end of the world” troupe in science fiction is that it takes things that we are dealing with now (be it tech change or environmental change) and tries to predict the worst-case scenario of what could happen. It’s not really meant as a “Here’s what IS going to happen” so much as it’s “Here’s what COULD happen.”

Like I said at the top of the post, I love Sci-Fi. The possibilities are endless for what can be discussed because it’s talking about things that haven’t happened yet. Unlike Historical dramas, where every detail can be dissected to see how it matches up against what happened, science fiction can make up more or less anything they want. Need to go long distances in a ship fast? Sweet, let’s get the sub-super-turbo drive thingy warmed up, and we’ll be there in a jiffy! Need a new species? awesome….Slap some silicone mould on that actor over there, and we’ll figure the details out later! There was a great story about Gene Roddenberry when he was developing the story for Star Trek. Someone once asked him how he came up with the concept of beaming technology, and his response was something along the lines of “I just couldn’t figure out how to land the damned ship!” Science fiction is a great storytelling medium because it allows the creative freedom to tell fantastic stories that have moved our society along.

This month is actually my birthday month, and because of that, I’m going to go ahead and engage my nerdiness. I recognize that this is a tech blog 90% of the time, but you were willing to indulge me with my MS post last month, and I assume you’re going to be willing to do the same with this stuff. Like I said, I’m getting older this month, so I’m indulging myself with a little frivolous blog writing.

What do you think about Science Fiction?

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