Is Science Fiction dead?

[KenJackson]

Originally Posted by crich70

They're two sides of the same coin. Spacemen fly in spaceships while the being of Fantasy ride dragons or have wooden ships that fly through the air. ... It's more that the props are different than anything else (IMO).

No.

Consider the SciFi classic Dune. I consider it to be just barely SciFi, because there is a little science involved (just a little). The reality of living on a desert planet with little water, evaporator farming, suits that collect and reuse water are kind of science. But a giant sandworm is little different from a dragon--no science involved. The endearing quality of Dune is not it's science, but it's soap opera--it's interaction between people.

Now consider one of my all-time favorites: Encounter with Tiber. This also contains a soap opera (to be all things to all people, I guess) but it's much more. It's a tour de force of bunches of real technologies and schemes that have been dreamed up over the years that might be used in real interstellar travel. I don't think anyone has ever made a huge hoop of superconducting wire to ionize free hydrogen in space and use it to propel a spacecraft--but the system has been designed and is presented in the book. Excellent! Real science. Real engineering. Monsters are optional.

[dworth]

Of course what constitutes science fiction is a pretty nebulous idea anyway. The lable gets slapped onto all manner of things. Nineteen Eighty Four by George Orwell and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood often get classed as sci-fi and neither contain very much in the way of scientific speculation (telescreens notwithstanding). Instead, both describe dystopian futures and are more social and political speculation than scientific. On the other hand, Star Wars is pretty much synonymous with sci-fi, but strip away the spaceships and laser guns and it's an old fashioned sword and sorcery yarn.

[Penforhire]

Hard SF must be congruent with current scientific understanding. Otherwise it just isn't "hard." It can later be viewed as fantasy or ordinary SF if our understanding of the science changes that much.

Some great examples above about what makes something fantasy, not physically possible. Now, if I were to explain that MY dragon was a synthetic carbon nanofiber construction powered by an external microwave beam it could certainly drift back toward "hard."

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by crich70

Because if you go back far enough they have a common origin. They're two sides of the same coin. Spacemen fly in spaceships while the being of Fantasy ride dragons or have wooden ships that fly through the air. And as Arthur C. Clarke said," Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Sci-Fi is different from fantasy in that its 'technology' is arguably possible. What is the first real Sci-Fi novel? By H.G.Wells? I'm guessing Sci-Fi emerged with the rise of the machine.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Sci-Fi is different from fantasy in that its 'technology' is arguably possible. What is the first real Sci-Fi novel? By H.G.Wells? I'm guessing Sci-Fi emerged with the rise of the machine.

That's true as we understand the world today, but what of Lucian's "True History" which tells of a trip to the moon. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu...okup?num=10430 And you could argue that Frankenstein has elements of Science Fiction as well for that matter. Both were written long before Well's books were.

[Penforhire]

Plato's allegory of the cave could be considered SF, written 300-some B.C., if a little abstract.

There's probably a caveman drawing somewhere in France showing a dude with a glowing spear killing a mastodon with one blow...

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Penforhire

Plato's allegory of the cave could be considered SF, written 300-some B.C., if a little abstract.

There's probably a caveman drawing somewhere in France showing a dude with a glowing spear killing a mastodon with one blow...

lol. I wouldn't be at all surprised if you were right about that.

[jrlewis]

Of course SF isn't dead, it's the book stores that are dead. If you want great new SF, just look online. Big authors, new authors.

Charlie Stross is still turning out great stuff, for example.