Science Fiction (according to the internet)

Hallmarks of the genre

Worries about the future, yet yearns for it intensely. Foresees the inevitable (problems, not
solutions). Speculative questions about technology. Studies the self-driven (selfish) pursuit
of knowledge and its consequences.
Science is limited only by the human imagination. The moral and ethical considerations in
the advent of new technologies. The genre as the exploration of our anxieties of the present
and the future.

Influences
Sci-fi has its roots in reactionary motifs and worries about the many ways civilization might
fall. But it also includes an exploration of the human condition and its relationship to
technology (which can be an enabler for change or the destroyer of all).
The age enlightenment: elevation of reason and empirical observation as the nexus for
human knowledge.
The industrial revolution: innovation, technological changes and climate change.
Gothic fiction: Romantic subgenre, not necessarily scary; it focuses on the gloomy, dark,
and dreary atmosphere in which it is set (the set can be a character in itself); it is interested
in the human psyche; and, the main subject isn’t usually the narrator (and is a stand in for
the audience, can often be unreliable). The modern take removes the dark emphasis from
the atmosphere and places it on the characters.
Popular philosophical ideas: utopia, mankind’s great fall.

Authors and styles

The genre originates with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Jules Verne: adventure-driven romantic sci-fi opera.
H.G. Wells: moralizing tone.
Golden age of sci-fi: ethical questions, anxieties about the future and the use of
technological oversight. Includes authors like Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Isaac
Asimov, and George Orwell.
Philip K. Dick: cyberpunk, the progression of technologies and social inequalities.
Ursula K. Le Guin: explorations of a genderless society.
Orson Scott Cord: inspired by the rise of the internet age, predicted how the internet
would shape the course of discourse and the gamification of warfare.
Michael Crichton: a modern Mary Shelley, warns of the dangers of irresponsible science.
Octavia E. Butler: the grande dame of the genre. Featured women of color as
protagonists, was seminal to the development of the Afrofuturism subgenre.

Afrofuturism
The mystical, the mundane and the musical.
Addresses the cultural issues and concerns of the African diaspora through techno-culture
and science fiction. Just as other form of cultural texts that stem from the black experience,
it is about creating art out of pain, strength, loss and successes. It is fundamentally rooted in
being denied a full history and looking to the future to correct that.
At the root of Afrofuturism is black speculative fiction, which uses science fiction as a way
of telling stories about black resistance, history and hope.
“Afrofuturism has emerged as a term of convenience to describe analysis, criticism and
cultural production that addresses the intersections between race and technology”, “part of
the resilience of black culture and black life is imagining the impossible”, “Afrofuturism
draws upon the feeling of alienation inherited from the slavery of American blacks, which
it sublimates”, “In this conception, certain elements of Afro-American culture (such as the
transcendence of spirituals) are reimagined and transposed into a new cosmic and legendary
perspective, where the alienated becomes extraterrestrial” – Alondra Nelson, Sociologist.
Afrofuturism is about reclaiming our past in order to craft our future. And that is done by
infusing black sound and stories with a forward thinking desire to see how our culture
could have evolved or could still evolve unhindered by colonial influence.