Though skill fiction often mangles scientific Sojourner Truth , it is nevertheless a genre that is extremely influenced by the latest trends in scientific thought and inquiry . Here are some of the scientific ( and semi - scientific ) idea that have influenced SF the most .
[ Illustration byStephan Martiniere ]
I ’ve listed these theme roughly in chronological rules of order , from oldest melodic theme to newest .
Natural Selection
Charles Darwin ’s hypothesis of natural selection , where he posited that life is shaped by inter - species rival for resource in specific environments , is fundamental to understanding science fiction . The genre is full of storey where two unlike species of intelligent beings – often humans and creatures from other planets – are compete for the same resources , like water , energy , or the open of a satellite . Of of course it ’s also skillful to know about natural selection to debunk bad science fiction . For example , why would a bright red giant monster evolve on a satellite full of ice ? I ’m looking at you , JJ Abrams ’ Star Trek .
What mass often draw a blank is that rude selection is also the theory of chromosomal mutation , another estimate that is skinny and near to the SF genre . variation who survive better than their “ normal ” progenitors are the survivors , in Darwin ’s story of things . The idea of in force , fitter mutants take over the world has been a mainstay of SF since A. E. van Vogt wrote Slan in 1940 .
Homework : Charles Darwin’sOn the Origin of the Speciesgives you unexpurgated evolutionary hypothesis . A good topographic point to lead off is UC Berkeley’sEvolution 101online . Stephen Jay Gould ’s extremely readable essay collectionEver Since Darwintackles evolutionary possibility from all angles .
Psychoanalysis
It may not be considered a science today , but analysis was taken very seriously as a scientific idea in the early and mid - 20th century when SF was in its Golden Age . writer were fascinated by Sigmund Freud ’s idea that you could divide the human idea up into three interlocking parts : I d ( your uncurbed desires ) , Ego ( your canonic mother wit of ego ) , and Superego ( your moral center , often derived from what your parent or your culture teach as “ right ” and “ wrong ” ) . Countless SF story deal with “ unleashing the I d ” – most famously , Forbidden Planet features a technology that can make thoughts from the I d become real . Another psychoanalytic estimation that still haunts SF today is the notion that people have an “ unconscious , ” a part of their thinker that they ca n’t see or realise . Your unconscious idea is the kingdom of aspiration and wishes , a cognitive wild that crops up in SF stories where citizenry engage in mind control , dream - manipulation ( hello , Inception ) , or telepathy .
Homework : Sigmund Freud , Beyond the Pleasure Principle ; if you want to get into some interesting literary theory , check out Franco Moretti ’s essay “ The Dialectic of Fear , ” which uses psychoanalysis and sociological theory to talk about the meaning of Dracula and Frankenstein .
General Relativity
Tragically , you must understand Albert Einstein ’s radical theory about the comparability of subject and muscularity simply so as to apprehend how few SF stories actually adhere to it . His theory lay the instauration for the Big Bang theory of the cosmos , as well as atomic weapons . It also , sadly , prove that traveling quicker than the speed of light – which we ’d need to do , if we want to get anywhere cool in space – was basically not survivable by a human . That ’s why a good deal of SF simply ignores general theory of relativity , or excogitate affair like teleportation or “ subspace ” travel to explain how ballistic capsule are soar up from star system to star system in a matter of days .
Homework : Albert Einstein , Relativity ; NOVA has a great site where10 contemporary physicist explain general theory of relativity to you in layperson ’s terms .
Participant Observation
In the other days of anthropology , researchers believed that the best way to understand other culture was from an outside perspective . You would mention your field of study , talk to them , and even take statue or textiles from them , but you were n’t earmark to “ go native ” and assay to see the human beings from their position . But in the other 20th century , a young generation of anthropologists like Margaret Mead decided that the only way to sympathize other cultures was to immerse yourself in them as much as possible . illustrious SF author Ursula Le Guin , whose parent were anthropologists , is famous for her novel about aliens who learn about life on other planet via participant observation . In fact , this idea is extremely common in tale about aliens who come to Earth , from V to Starman , where aliens put on human guises in ordination to survive among us and “ translate humanity . ”
Homework : Danny L. Jorgensen , Participant Observation ; Norah Vincent , Self - Made Man(a contemporaneous example of participant observation , where a distaff writer live as a man for a year and write about manful culture )
Artificial Intelligence
In the mid - twentieth century , computer scientist Alan Turing speculated that we might one day make automobile that are artificially reasoning , with minds equivalent or superior to human 1 . This idea has excited computer scientists and science fable writer likewise , and has become one of the mainstay of SF , top to Isaac Asimov ’s famous “ three laws of robotics , ” fundamentally the Superego of robotic artificial intelligence , the murderous AI HAL from 2001 , and of course contemporary AI SF tool like the cylons in Battlestar Galatica and Wall - E from the eponymic film . Nearly all futuristic science fiction stories assume that humans will invent machines that can think exactly like us – and probably good .
Homework : John McCarthy,“What Is AI ? ” . Rodney Brooks , Flesh and Machines : How Robots Will modify Us .
Environmental Science
Though environmental skill refer simply to constellation of fields that face at how everything from ecosystems to geologic process subroutine , for science fabrication it is most authoritative as way to understand environmental variety . Your “ surround ” is essentially a giant system of inputs and outputs , and most SF stories take for granted the musical theme that convert one part of an ecosystem can affect an entire planet . you could not have the conception of terraforming , for model , without environmental scientific discipline . By the same token , you ca n’t have an environmental Revelation of Saint John the Divine like the one in The Road or Waterworld without understanding that releasing toxins into the atmosphere has outcome for the rest of the ecosystem .
Homework : “ Introduction to Environmental Biology , ” Cambridge University Press . [ PDF excerpt ] ; Peter Ward , The Medea Hypothesis(a fascinating story of Earth ’s environment and how we can change it )
The Singularity
scientific discipline fabrication of the past thirty year has been strongly influence by the idea of the “ uniqueness , ” which is essentially a mode of look at how technical alteration speeds up over time . I write an io9 backgrounder on singularity possibility , whichyou can interpret here . This is how I summed up uniqueness theory at the start of that post :
https://gizmodo.com/what-is-the-singularity-and-will-you-live-to-see-it-5534848
The terminal figure uniqueness describes the present moment when a culture change so much that its dominion and technologies are incomprehensible to old generation . Think of it as a gunpoint - of - no - return in history . Most thinkers believe the uniqueness will be jump - start out by extremely speedy technical and scientific change . These changes will be so fast , and so profound , that every aspect of our society will be transformed , from our bodies and family to our authorities and economy .
SF author like Charles Stross , Rudy Rucker , and Ken MacLeod have save extensively about post - singularity socieities .
Homework : Vernor Vinge,“Technological uniqueness ” , io9 Backgrounder : The Singularity
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is one of those self-aggrandizing ideas that encompasses a heap of thing , from the very naturalistic to the fantastical . On the realistic side , it can describe the recitation of synthesizing raw materials by manipulate elements or molecules on the microscale ( carbon nanotube are a well - known result of this kind of nanotech ) . It can also line molecular machines , generally cobble together out of biologic component , that can be used in medicine . And on the fantastical side , it describes the practice session of manipulating affair at the nuclear level , essentially creating objects wholecloth out of particle . Star Trek ’s replicators are a stark example of the fantastic side of nanotechnology . The mind of nanotechnology lead to a concern of “ grey muck , ” or self - reduplicate micromachines that would reduce objects down to their component part atoms and then reconstruct them as something else . This is the premiss of Greg Bear ’s novel rakehell Music . But reasonably much any time you see a replicator - like twist in SF , or get a line characters talking about radical - scant metals and top-notch - strong glass , you ’re dealing with nanotechnology .
Homework : Bill Joy , “ The Future Does n’t Need Us ” ( where the “ grey sludge ” scenario was first suggested ) ; K. Eric Drexler , The Engines of Creation
Synthetic Biology
A comparatively new bailiwick , man-made biology focalise on manipulating life at the genetical level to create new , “ synthetic ” life forms or to fix flaws in exist life form . Like genetic engineering , the theatre focus on hacking genomes ; but unlike genetic engineering , its focal point is on building new life form , or even just component of lifetime forms . One of the champaign ’s greatest proponents is Stanford ’s Drew Endy , who has helped popularize the terminal figure synthetic biological science and is trying to build a library of “ biological function ” that could be used as the edifice city block of young living . The idea of engineering new life forms is as old as science fabrication itself , set out with the novel Frankenstein , and lately making an coming into court in the creepy film Splice . alas , scientific discipline fable rarely depicts synthetical biological science correctly , and often jumps right to the estimate that synthetic being will become rampaging freak . In reality , most synthetical organism are microscopic , and the playing field is dedicate to improving the wellness and ( in the case of Agriculture Department ) the nutritional value of many life forms .
Homework : Watch Drew Endy explain synthetic biological science at the Chaos Computer Congress in Germany .
Click to consider
General relativityNanotechnologyNatural SelectionSciencesynthetic biota
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