Archive for May, 2005

The future of science fiction

Sunday, May 1st, 2005

There have always been debates in science fiction about the legacy of Star Wars. At the same time, it interested more people in SF, the movies have set back our thinking of how SF looks at the world. In the Stars Wars universe, SF is space opera, that is opera in spacesuits and rocket ships. SF has moved on since then.

Like science itself, science fiction has evolved since the days of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Since the end of World War II, the genre has shifted its focus from space and time travel to more complex speculations on how the future, whatever its shape, will affect the individual.

That shift has only accelerated in recent years, as biotech and genetic engineering have moved to center stage in science and captured writers’ imaginations, and as the lines between science fiction and other genres begin to blur. “We’re starting to look inward, rather than outward,” Mr. Morgan said. “There are exciting and scary things going to be happening in our bodies.”