Science Fiction: Prepared By: Rojina Adhikari

Science fiction
PREPARED BY :
ROJINA ADHIKARI
Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or SF) is a kind of writing. Science fiction stories can be novels, movies, TV
shows, video games, comic books and other literature.
SF is often about the future. It can be about imaginary new science and inventions such as spaceships, time machines,
and robots. Science fiction stories are often in a world that is very different from the real world. They can have science
and tools that do not exist in reality. Science fiction stories often take place on other worlds. There are often alien
creatures.
Science fiction is drastically different from fantasy. Fantasy stories often have magic and other things that do not exist
and are not science. Isaac Asimov was a famous science fiction writer. He once said that science fiction is possible, but
fantasy is not.
Writers often use SF to explain everyday questions or problems by putting them in the future. Usually they invent a
very different world to help people notice important ideas.
Two broad genres of science fiction are Hard SF and Soft SF. Although not everyone agrees on the exact definitions of
these two types, the way they use science or the type of science used in the stories is different. Hard science fiction, or
"hard SF", is special because it uses true facts and theories from sciences. These sciences are very important in Hard SF:
physics, astrophysics, and chemistry. Also, Hard SF can show worlds that more advanced technology may make
possible. Many correct predictions of the future come from the hard science fiction subgenre. However, there have been
many incorrect ideas about the future, too. Some hard SF writers have also worked as professional scientists. A few of
these scientist/writers are Gregory Benford and Geoffrey A. Landis, while mathematician authors include Rudy Rucker
and Vernor Vinge. Other noteworthy hard SF authors include Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Isaac Asimov, Greg Bear,
Stanislav Lem, Larry Niven, Robert J. Sawyer, Stephen Baxter, Alastair Reynolds, Charles Sheffield, and Greg Egan.
Soft science fiction stories take ideas from social sciences such as psychology, economics, political science, sociology,
and anthropology. Some important writers in this category include Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip K. Dick. Soft SF can be
mostly about character and emotion. Ray Bradbury won a prize called the SFWA Grand Master and writes in this style.
The Soviet Union produced social science fiction too. Some examples are Strugatsky brothers, Kir Bulychov and Ivan
Yefremov. Some Social SF and Soft SF can be types of speculative fiction, for example utopian or dystopian stories.
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's
Tale, are examples. Some people think that satirical novels in fantastic settings (places) such as Gulliver's Travels by
Jonathan Swift are speculative fiction.
Science fiction's great rise in popularity during the first half of the 20th century was closely tied to the popular respect
paid to science at that time, as well as the rapid pace of technological innovation and new inventions. Science fiction
has often predicted scientific and technological progress. Some works predict that new inventions and progress will
tend to improve life and society, for instance the stories of Arthur C. Clarke and Star Trek.Others, such as H.G.
Wells's The Time Machine and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, warn about possible negative consequences.
In 2001 the National Science Foundation conducted a survey on "Public Attitudes and Public Understanding: Science

Fiction and Pseudoscience.“ It found that people who read or prefer science fiction may think about or relate to
science differently than other people. They also tend to support the space program and the idea of
contacting extraterrestrial civilizations. Carl Sagan wrote: "Many scientists deeply involved in the exploration of
the solar system (myself among them) were first turned in that direction by science fiction.”
Brian Aldiss described science fiction as "cultural wallpaper. “Evidence for this widespread influence can be found
in trends for writers to employ science fiction as a tool for advocacy and generating cultural insights, as well as for
educators when teaching across a range of academic disciplines not limited to the natural sciences.[173] Scholar and
science fiction critic George Edgar Slusser said that science fiction "is the one real international literary form we have
today, and as such has branched out to visual media, interactive media and on to whatever new media the world will
invent in the 21st century. Crossover issues between the sciences and the humanities are crucial for the century to
come."

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Science fiction

In 2001 the National Science Foundation conducted a survey on "Public Attitudes and Public Understanding: Science

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