Where Has Science Fiction Gone?

The genre of science fiction has been fading away as it has been absorbed into other literary formulas. The rapid pace of our technological society has turned so many science fiction dreams into a reality, the presence of new or even exotic technology in a novel or film hardly seems like "fiction." This leads to an important question: has science fiction become to diffuse to even be considered a distinct category?

A work use to be defined as science fiction by taking a hypothetical technology or principle-like a craft that could travel to the moon-and using it as the major concept driving a story. Effective authors took the knowledge of the day and did their best to present a storyline within the limits of known possibilities. Grounding a story in reality makes it interesting and engaging. Drama emerges when characters face the limitations of their situation, and this is true even if the limitations in question are the laws of physics or the possibilities of engineering.

When characters confront such barriers-using the resources already available to them and within the established rules-it produces a satisfying experience for the audience. The reader or viewer can try to anticipate the solution and this makes them feel engaged. They are able to share in the resolution with the character.

However, at least in film and television, science fiction is used as a catchall to do things that are impossible. For instance, how common is faster than light travel on the screen? The consequences of general relativity are completely ignored. According to Einstein's work, traveling faster than light is either impossible, or it leads to violations of causality-in other words, time travel. Science Fiction novelists and screenplay writers frequently ignore this and many other physical principles. Rather than being driven by what is hypothetically possible, popular science fiction is becoming defined by what is, as far as we know, impossible. It has moved away from science and toward fantasy.

Such trends have been compounded by the fact that many possibilities have already become reality. Domestic technologies have already met or exceeded the vision of the science fiction authors of just a few decades ago. The globe has seen the development of widespread miniaturized communications technology, global information and media networks, elementary brain-computer interfaces, robotic prosthetics, and so on. Other staples of scifi, including nanotechnology robots and manned interplanetary travel, may be just around the corner. Space probes, like NASA's Deep Space 1, have used ion drives, and plans for nuclear powered plasma rockets, like VASIMIR are in the works. The emergence of radical and strange technology is now a fact of daily life as the pace of discovery and development increased each year in the twentieth century and into twenty-first. This diminishes the impact of new or exotic technologies being introduced to an audience in a work of fiction, and so in order to hold the audience's interest, writers turn from merely the new and exotic to the extraordinary and impossible.

Some might argue that science fiction is not worth saving, but there is still a place for it. The genre has long provided a window onto our possible future, and in this sense it helps us prepare for a world that has yet to emerge. More importantly, it is a bastion for those who are not interested in conventional fiction but still desire entertainment and escape. Science fiction is the genre for those who enjoy contemplating the consequences of technological changes and new physical possibilities. It provides intellectual stimulation in a way other genre cannot.

Science fiction can be saved by being better defined. As with many things, the answer involves getting back to basics. Popular franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars have tended to divorce the genre from real science and plausible technology. Rather than presenting a future that could be, such stories dive into the realm of pure imagination. While there is place for this, it is perhaps not science fiction proper.

In order to maintain the integrity of the genre, there is a need to return to technical accuracy and remaining within the limits of known or at least hypothetically plausible science. For instance, doing a story about the many-world interpretation of quantum mechanics is a true science fiction story. This would be based on something that might be true. However, plot lines that involve purely fictional elements (like "anti-time" or "red matter"), run into the realm of pure fantasy. Recent Web sites such as Winchell Chung's Atomic Rockets have begun attempting to the steer the genre back by providing technical information to science fiction authors. A story can be a mix of science fiction and fantasy, but the term "science fiction" should be reserved for storylines with central elements that are firmly anchored in realism and technical accuracy.