Essays on Science Fiction

Modern roads were developed in the XX century at the time cars became affordable for the Americans. As the society develops and people invent more advanced technologies the life gets more and more convenient and safe. It concerns roads as well. A modern road should be safe and provide the traffic safety. The road engineers should think about how to reduce the possible harm on the highways from traffic collisions. The construction, design, and regulation of the roads should be well thought out. Highway design is always based on the landscape principles and engineering principles of grade cross-section, right-of-way, ...

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Oculus Rift is an application device from the field of Virtual Reality (VR) that potentially manipulates people's mind with a 3D experience. With virtual reality, it is now feasible to provide users with an experience that earlier would not have been possible. Virtual reality is a computerized simulated environment that through the help of some device gives the user an experience of that environment. The user through his mind experiences the virtual environment created and projected through the device enabling VR. The environment generated and perceived by ...

Research Question: How do the apocalyptic tensions in the SF films Things to Come and The Day the Earth Stood Still reflect Sontag’s “Imagination of Disaster?”

The Day the Earth Stood Still, dir: Robert Wise (United States, 1951). In terms of classic science fiction, William Cameron Menzies’ Things to Come and Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still stand firm as examples of the ways in which humanity used science fiction in film to explore the anxieties that came with things like war, apocalyptic destruction, and the possibility of death through our own command of technology. ...

Science fiction, regardless of its medium, is often thought to be a means of projecting our ideas of the future – what it could be, what it might become, how it should be, and so on. This is often demonstrated in the utopian and dystopian genres of SF, in which future societies, either good or bad, are showcased in order to explore sociological and philosophical ideas about humanity and society. As Jameson notes, this kind of future projection and prediction can be complicated to express, as semiotics and symbolism grants us the ability to investigate those ideas in more abstract ...

If a particular difference is so huge that there it is not likely to have occurred due to sampling error or chance, then the difference is statistically different. It is important to note that it can never be said with absolute certainty that two given numbers are significantly different. Typically, numbers are tested at a certain level of confidence, with 95% being an average degree of confidence. In situations where the results are significantly different at 95%, then it can be said that we are 95% confident that the numbers are different. Note that there is 5% chance that ...

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Phillip K. Dick) – Air Raid (John Varley). ‘We Can Remember It for You Wholesale’ is a futuristic short story written by Phillip K. Dick, centered on the concept of memory manipulation. It takes on the undiscovered fields of new age science. The concepts involved in the short story are so complex and underdeveloped even in this age and time. But still the author immaculately and ostentatiously nails his narrative. In the same sense, ‘Air Raid’ written by John Varley, seems to be the perfect match for the pairing. Both these short stories ...

1. Why does Quail want to go to Mars? The unknown world of another planet attracted him very much. Douglass was obsessed with the idea of trudging among its valleys again because he had already visited the planet as a secret Interplan agent. 2. Why does Quali’s wife always try to discourage his interest in Mars? Douglas himself stated that it was a wife’s job to bring him down to Earth. In fact, Kirsten knew about his previous trip to Mars. 3. How does REKAL, INC. provide trips to Mars? They incorporate extra-factual memory implant and provide ...

The debate between the differences and similarities of American and Japanese cartoons continous to divide the world while trying to answer which one is the best. American cartoon supporters claim that American cartoons are better than its Japanese counterpart because of its content and brand of comedy. On the other hand, Japanese cartoons or anime fans would argue Japanese anime is better than American cartoons not just because of its more diverse storylines, but also because of its embodiment of Japanese society and realism in its entirety. This paper will discuss the differences and similarities of American and Japanese ...

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Contribution to Society A man who brought much name and fame to Hollywood and the United States is none other than the phenomenal and most powerful filmmakers the country hasThe biggest credit given to Spielberg for his work is his unique interest in science fiction and the spirit of which he kept alive through the dozens of films he made. Spielberg has become a role model for the youth of America as well as the entire world. He has made films like Jurassic Park, Jaws, ...

James describes utopia as an imagined place or state of affairs where all things are perfect and ideal. It is the product of imagination by a writer where the place is painted to be better than our present world (James 219). James argues that the recent science fiction has been very critical of utopian literature. For instance, the author argues that science fiction writers object the feeling in the utopian literature that the utopian writers aim for a society that is largely static. Science fiction argues that the utopian literature denies adventure, the taking of risks and the expansion of both ...

In the modern world, several activists have called upon different stakeholders to ensure equality is maintained between the two genders. A lot of caution is taken in most sectors to ensure that both genders are presented with equal opportunities in any endeavor. This is very different from what the practice was some years back. Traditionally, men were considered to be superior to women. Such discrimination saw women reduced to objects whose purpose was to ensure men lived happily. To overcome these traditional myths, women have struggled hard to air their views. One of the ways they have aired their ...

What is the significance of events in films? Are all the bits and pieces in films intentionally included by directors? These are some of the questions I asked myself as I set out on a comprehensive analysis of the audience message in the Aliens Films (1979-1997). According to film analyst Greg Smith, different events in films are not to be treated as accidental encounters of random occurrence and spontaneity. They are instead purposefully planned series of events with cause and effect and with nothing left to chance (Greg 128). Greg explains that Hollywood films are inadvertently one of the most ...

In the introduction section, the paper describes in detail what the environment is and how the human race takes it for granted. In this section, the thesis statement is also given out and the materials to be used in this paper are listed. In the section of effects of pollution, the paper starts by describing the tendency of the human race of destroying the environment in the name of creating new development. In this section, the far-reaching effects of environmental destruction are listed and explained. Some of the effects that have been recorded are radiations that make the earth ...

As a big fan of Science Fiction Horror movies, I like the types of aliens that are strong looking, love to exterminate anything, and take over the land to spread out their horrendous empire. To me aliens are pretty cool creatures to explore and learn about. Aliens have been known as strangers or outsiders who are not in the same category as human. Therefore, we believe if they really exist and the way they came on earth is because they want to suck the potential source that we have and start their invasion. When I was in Vietnam, television became a ...

It is a fact that the society in general has attempted to use different strategies to modify the distribution and circulation of movies. Some of these strategies have involved the tweaking of cinematographic techniques to advance the themes and aesthetic aspects of the movie, as a way of increasing film sales. Others have involved modifying the themes in the movie industry to penetrate the market and to conscientize the society towards a desired end. In itself, allegorization refers to the use of symbolic actions and figures or generalizations on human existence in literary works. Normally, allegorization is used to give the themes ...

Aspect of H.G. Wells’ Novel “When the Sleeper Wakes” “When the Sleeper Wakes,” an original story published between 1898 and 1903 and written by H.G. Wells represents the passionate, socialistic outcry of the author in the form of a futuristic tale that features an Englishman (protagonist) called Graham. The story takes place in London, and the man Graham finds himself a bit disoriented due to the fact that he has slept for approximately 203 years apparently as a result of tampering with drugs to cure his insomnia. Apparently H. G. Wells embraces a fascination pertaining to dystopian literature that presents the preponderance ...

The book ‘When the Sleeper Wakes’ is one of the unique works of H.G. Wells originally published in the year 1899. The protagonist of the story is a nineteenth-century man named Graham, an insomniac who falls asleep for 203 years and wakes up in the year 2100. After a two-century long sleep, Graham discovers himself in the mechanized city of New London, which greets him with urbane steel and glass . He finds powerful men in a combination of political tyrants and capitalist exploiters. Wells describes the future society as a herd of prole masses along a luxuriant transport system consisting of sidewalks. The society ...

Film and cinema production has been recently in the rise having improved technology over the years. This has been one of the trending factors in the music industry. Movie production in the 19th century was low and due to the lack of efficient technology to aid in production of films. Many individuals watch films with the main aim of getting entertained but today there are films which are considered to be educative, provide warning, as well as reflecting on what is trending in the society. This paper would focus and look at the film Hotel Rwanda. The film ...

X-Men series of film is an institution in its amazing way. Bryan Singer pioneered this popular comic characters and brought them to the silver screen. It is a very gigantic task to convert the fictional fantasy of an existence of a superhuman into a realistic visual treat. However, highly creative mind of Bryan Singer is capable of this task. The history is the evidence (The Usual Suspects) of the mastery of Bryan Singer in direction and storytelling. The thesis statement of this paper is the powerful auteur of the directorial team of the movie to bring his vision into reality.

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The Martian Chronicles, a science fiction short story collection is dated by 1950 year, was written by a famous fiction-writer, Ray Bradbury. This story collection tells about the colonization of Mars by humans, running from their troubled and devastated Earth; about the conflict between the aboriginal creatures of this planet and the newcomers, resulted in annihilation both Earth and Martian races. But, The Martian Chronicles isn’t only the science fiction story collection at all, but it can be a version of mythology, made by Ray Bradbury with involving a lot of sci-fi techniques as rocket ships and space travels. The author ...

INTRODUCTION Neil Armstrong once said, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (qtd in National Aeronautics and Space Administration 1). There are many events throughout history, both positive and negative, that are remarked as significant and most impactful, which has changed the perspectives on humanity and what they are capable of. The 1969 mission and moon-landing of the manned Apollo 11 shuttle is one of these events. People all across the county and around the world were in awe of the idea that human beings could leave this planet and visit another celestial body ...

INTRODUCTION In a diverse nation like the United States there are many ideologies, philosophies, cultural “norms,” and belief systems, it is not really surprising that people are not always going to agree. There are many legal, political, and social issues that raise ethical questions that the public cannot agree upon how best to approach and address the debated issues. One of the most heatedly debated issues that exist today is the concerns surrounding stem cell research. Stem cell research has the potential to change the field of medicine and how people are healed. However, all of that potential is ...

A science fiction film (Sci-fi) is a movie that encompasses an extreme sense of science and imaginary picture design. At most, they use advanced technology For Example devices, robots, and spacecraft assumed to grace the world in the future. A number of Science fiction films tend to travel in the future, outer space or introduce supernatural beings from other planets. This paper will review the movie ‘the day the earth stood still’ comparing it with the ‘Invasion of the body snatcher’ of 1956 as a Sci-fi film. In addition, the paper intends to connect and explain the themes and the iconographies ...

It is often the case that science fiction writers infuse aspects of religion in their works. In the case of the two books Out of the Silent Planet and Bellwether the authors have infused aspects of religion in their works as will be shown in this essay. The presence of science fiction in books makes the genre more interesting to read. In the two novels the two main characters are characterized by their agency and their subjectivity. This means that they exhibit a mythic dimension and an ethical dimension. Characterized by their agency, the main characters in these novels are ...

Cyberpunk is a form of science fiction that emerged in the latter half of the 20th Century. This genre of science fiction involves the envisioning of a near future that is characterized by scientific advancement in the form of cybernetics an information technology. This advancement is however coupled with societal order breakdown where chaos and anarchy reigns. Many of the cyberpunk narratives revolve around conflicts between technological experts like hackers or even conflicts between technological mega-corporations. A lot of cyberpunk plots are set in dystopian societies marked by massive cultural rot as well as the use of advanced technology to propel ...

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells There have been several science fiction novels written in the late nineteenth century. However, only a handful of them stood out for providing fuel for both drama as well as science. The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells is a highly debatable novel as it has been one of the pioneers in signalling the subtle concepts of the use of superior technology to win wars. One of the major reasons for the novel as well as the film to be extremely popular is its unique concept of using science fiction to ...

The website in question is io9.com, a media and genre-based website that is part of the Kinja network (along with other popular websites like Gawker and Jezebel). It is a curated blog-type website whose business model is to create content for their audience, which is mostly concerned with science fiction and fantasy media (such as books, movies, comic books, video games, music, television, etc.). The sender of the content is io9 itself as an entity, headed by editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz, as well as managing editor Charlie Jane Anders. The perceived receiver of the content includes an audience of tech-savvy, genre fiction ...

INTRODUCTION There are very few people in the United States who do not know what the quote “May the Force be with you” means, even if they are not fans of the Star Wars franchise. The same could be said for “beam me up,” “resistance is futile,” and “boldly go where no one has gone before.” Science fiction, its characters, phrases, and worlds presented, have become part of the social paradigm. Granted, science fiction is a genre that does not appeal to everyone, but to those who favor the genre they are often committed and loyal. Science fiction can ...

According to the various studies and observations observed in the contemporary world, the neuroscientists argue that the evolution of humankind had reached the satiation point. It is expected that the mental capabilities and capacities, organ functions and the shape of the body will most probably change into the worse for the coming years. As a result, many people, including Max More believes that technology and science are the fundamental aspects to save the human race. This is most apparent in the contemporary society where human biological bodies are replaced with mechanical or cloned bodies. According to Max, the whole ideology ...

The Frankenstein story was developed by Mary shelly at the age of eighteen years but was only published in 1818. The book attained a lot of critics globally and positive reviews following its publishing. Despite the critics it has faced over the decades since it got published, the book has continued to persist two hundred years after its publication. This is due to its theme and the science fiction behind the story where a character in the story tries to challenge religion and science by creating life. In this instance, the doctor tries to make himself a god. This paper will analyze ...

INTRODUCTION HISTORY As mentioned, the function of law enforcement has existed of millennia. At the core of the American law enforcement system is based on the system that we inherited from England when the first colonist came to the New World. For the most part law enforcement was handled by the military class, however local enforcement like Watch Keepers and the like, were generally ineffective. The modern police, men that patrol the streets and keep the peace, is based on the example of Constables, who also often provided some other civil service positions, like land surveyors. This ...

"Burning Chrome" by William Gibson As a beginning, it’s important to say that both stories “’Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” by Harlan Ellison and "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson are real masterpieces, and each of them contains some special information encoded between the lines. The stories are playing a special part in the history of American literature. It is interesting to discuss the similarities of the texts to understand more deeply the idea that authors encoded for future generations. Also, at the first sight, the stories look completely different and incomparable, however, looking deeper, it is possible to find ...

When you read this letter, you will be embarking on your University career. I hope all works well for you in all of your endeavors. I am now 75 years old and attended University in the United States. Many things have been difficult here for me and this country, as well. Well, really, things have been strange in this world since I can remember. As you may know, I was born in Egypt. There was a lot of political unrest there, but in the rest of Africa as well. When I was your age, President Mubarak of Egypt was deposed ...

What is science? If confined to the typical societal stigmas, science is a scientist in a lab, working for hours over a microscope with several chemical samples. If given a broader definition, science is all around us. It is in the way we breathe, or our biology. It is in the air around us, or the ecology. It is even in the universe that stretches so far beyond our feeble conceptions that we have had to develop a branch of science, theoretical physics, just to explain the missing links we do not understand yet. The book “Life, the Universe, and Everything,” by Douglas Adams, ...

Abstract Stem cell cloning is one of the biggest advancements the scientific and medical community has ever seen. Despite this amazing discovery, many individuals are finding ethical issues with the act of creating embryos for stem cell harvesting. Some may find this hard to believe because stem cells have the potential to help so many people that are suffering. Ethical issues include religious problems such as the unnatural formation of life, and its disposal, as well as the potential to clone humans. While many believe that cloning humans would eventually prove an ethical disaster, it is clear that ...

Science fiction is a sub- class of the horror film. Science fiction films sometimes often get confused with horror films. These two genres complement each other, and they have similarities because science fiction is said to have got adopted from traditional horror films. These two genres have distanced themselves from reality by use of fantasy and elements that get futuristic. Victims in horror films are shown as helpless completely, while science fiction shows the victims with more resilience. Alien a science fiction film of 1979 shows aliens getting defeated by technology and weapons. While the thing a horror film produced in 1982 ...

1) Expressionist film in Germany is a period of silent movies. The primary feature of Expressionist film is the theatrical appearance in the films. The actors used painted, dramatic scenery and exaggerated make-up. The changes in the German art were reflected in the sets, which had high contrast between white and black, different geometric shapes were used, all of which created exaggerated light and shadow. 2) Dracula of 1930 was inspired by the novel written by Bram Stoker and it is significant to the history of the American cinematography, as its main character, Dracula, set the bar for numerous ...

In the modern world, authors have employed science fiction as one of the mode of representing their main message and themes. Much of this science fiction is completely based on an author’s imaginative content and as such, the setting of such works of literature tends to adopt a futuristic background. Space travel, science and technology, parallel universe and time travel are some of the aspects that authors incorporate in science fiction films (Seed, 11). The essence of this genre is to explore the possible consequences of innovations that are scientific in nature. In most cases, they use science fiction ...

Planet of the Apes (1968): A Parody of Its Time The film, Planet of the Apes was released in early 1968, based on the novel of the same title by a French author, Pierre Boulle. Michael Wilson and Rod Serling (who also wrote for Twilight Zone) wrote the film’s screenplay and Franklin J. Schaffner directed it. The film was regarded as notable for its makeup, as these effectively and believably made ape characters from the human actors. It was commercially successful and earned millions of dollars in its lifetime. Planet of the Apes was a creative discourse ...

Film and literature industries show the men as Superman, Spiderman, Xman and many other types of superhuman characters, however, same has not been the case with the women. The movies which depicted women as superhuman did not achieve much success at the box-office. In this research paper, an analysis of success of men as superhuman and failure of women as superhuman has been carried out to identify the reasons to make it even for both genders. Also, depiction of women as superhuman in the movies and comic books will critically be looked at, with some examples from some prominent ...

The novel-based movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers has featured an entirely outrageous concept in its storyline – the involvement of alien forces in the infiltration of a small fictional town of Santa Mira, California. The capability of the aliens to produce replicas of people through atomic-mutating giant plant pods have become the subject of fear among people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which they have sought all throughout to challenge. Turning people into empty replicas of their original selves, the alien forces have taken the form of “evil” that has taken over Santa Mira, erstwhile a peaceful and balanced town ( ...

- The day the Earth Stood Still

Producer decided to produce a film that demonstrated the suspicion and fears that penetrated the early Atomic Age and the Cold war. He decided that Science fiction was suitable for metaphorically discussing these grave issues. He reviewed various novels and short stories to get a storyline that he could use. Darryl F. Zanuck gave a green light to this project. The producer hired the service of screenplay writer Edmund North. The ideas were picked from Farewell to the Master, a short story written Harry Bate. Edmund completed the revised version of the screenplay on the 21st ...

In the wake of the second world war and with the entry into what would come to be known as the “nuclear age”, the world knew that nothing would be the same in the second half of the 20th century. Arguably, nobody felt the dawn of the nuclear age greater than Japan following the devastation and chaos caused by the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. First-hand accounts of the bombings were frightening; people screaming, fleeing, desperate to find cover, while a blinding light and a sudden blazing heat suddenly filled the air, followed swiftly by an ominous roar, a steady rumble would follow, ...

1) Expressionist film in Germany is a part of the Expressionism movement in the country of 1920ies. This was a period of the silent movies and their main feature was the theatrical look in the films. The actors used painted, dramatic scenery and exaggerated make-up, which is commonly used in the theater. The changes in the German art were reflected in the sets, which had high contrast between white and black, different geometric shapes were used, all of which created exaggerated light and shadow. Although this movement did not last for long, it had significant impact on film makers from different ...

Ender's Game is a novel written by an American author called Orson Scott Card in the year 1985. It is a science fiction in the military because it tells about imaginary future reality offering the reader an unprejudiced point of view on the condition of human beings. The story presents a combination of the modern technology in connection to today's world, in an innovative manner. The book fits very well in science fiction literature. It is very easy to understand the book because it captures major elements of strategic leadership and combat to make a commander in the battlefield effective against a force from ...

Analysis of Science Fiction Movie Solaris Solaris is a Russian science fiction art film adaptation of the Stanislaw Lem’s novel Solaris (1961) shot in 1972, directed and co-written by Andrei Tarkovsky. It represents a meditative drama of psychological character set mostly on a space station that is orbiting around the fictional Solaris planet. The station had a scientific mission that was stalled as the three scientists in the crew fell into the emotional crises. This paper is dedicated to the analysis of the problems brought out by the film and the way the director managed to convey the ideas of Lem, ...

Disney is a diversified American multinational mass media corporation. Disney was founded on October 16, 1923 by Walt Disney and his brother Roy O. Disney. The company is best known for the production of cartoons, animations and recently a movie Pirate of the Caribbean Sea. In 2006 Disney under the CEO Bob Iger, came up with hit movie cars that generated $462 million worldwide. Then he created Hanna Montana, High school musicals and the Disney princesses. Bob Iger introductions have broadened Disney’s opportunities in the following ways; the creation of Cars franchise helps in cracking tween boy market which ...

Science fiction in the modern world plays a crucial role in providing imaginative contents of the things that human beings should expect at some point in time. This genre explores the likely effects and consequences of the innovations that are scientifically based. This genre is used by people to address current trends in the world and warn them of the possible effects that may be brought by the trends in the late life. The setting of such content is based in futuristic events and addresses issues such as the development of science and technology and the most likely scenarios that ...

In the current world, science fiction has been employed by many people to address political, social and economic issues. Through their imaginations, which are in a way related to the day-to-day real events, fiction plays a crucial role in maneuvering these issues. To some extent, science fiction achieves a great role in that some of the things that would be unimaginable in the real life scenarios. In order to achieve this, however, a high level of creativity is needed. This is effectively carefully address the contemporary issues that happen in the society. Failure to capture them effectively would mean that the purpose of ...

Science fiction and horror often use fantastical ideas to mirror real human anxieties and situations – this is often personified in the form of the ‘monster,’ a representation of the Other or abnormal in society. This Other can take many forms over the course of human history, and as such monsters in fiction mean different things based on their contexts. Two major works in science fiction in particular – Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s cyberpunk thriller film Blade Runner – tackle the idea of the ‘monster’ as embodiments of cultural anxieties about the Other. In this essay, Frankenstein’ ...

Edgar Allen Poe was a great storyteller and one of the most important fiction horror story writers of his age. He was also credited with inventing the detective story when he came out with his Auguste Lupin character that was based in Paris and is rather a forerunner of Sherlock Holmes. In fact three of the classic Dupin cases; ‘The Purloined Letter’, ‘Murders in the Rue Morgue’and ‘The Mystery of Marie Roget depict three classic situations which continue to affirm the point that Poe was the father of the detective novel. However this makes us observe the clarity with which ...

This paper will reflect over one of the classic literature works of King. It will reflect the interruptions of the one haunting message from the book. It will reflect over interviews and reviews regarding the book. Last it will prove why this book is a true haunting of horror and science fiction. There will not be certain of events that will proceed. This will focus on aspects of the book that gave Goosebumps. The reason it is not being presented in chronological order of events for this is a reflection. The haunting of wheel of fortune was one that gave ...

According to Richard Bleiler, authors seek to write compelling and unique stories that are not only informative but interesting and educative (66). This best describes science fiction novels which invent stories and make unreal and unbelievable stories more real and believable. This can be said about the novels Projects Gods and Brainchips by Stephen P. Naghdi and Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. These two writers have embraced modern technology to bring out stories which show how the human mind has been programmed to influence decisions that shape the path that humans take in trying to find solutions to problems ...

Ursula Le Guin’s short story ‘The Day Before the Revolution’ focuses on the main character’s old age experiences, exploring several important and crucial themes such as ageing, loneliness and grief. It is often seen as a sort of prologue to the more famous story The Dispossessed in which Le Guin explores the rambling themes of racism and political ambivalence. The story follows is about a woman, Laia Asieo Odo, and it follows her throughout a day in her life. Although she is sometimes referred to as Odo, this story is a personal narrative mostly and she is calls her ed ...

Diaz novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao starts with the narrators portrayal of a curse which is referred to as – a curse of doom (fuku americanus) distinctively that of a New World. In keeping with Diaz in the novel, the curse was taken to the island of Antilles at time when the Europeans arrived at has remained there ever after. In the novel, the narrator claims that dictator Rafael has a close relation with fuku. At the beginning, the novel details Oscar childhood, teenage and traumatic college years. He further informs the reader that he will be informing the reader about ...

Within science fiction, the concept of the dystopian world exists. These are the dark visions of the society. However, it is difficult to imagine that utopias would exist. Harrison Bergeron and V for Vendetta stories present dystopian societies and both are stories of the future which shows how the government will slowly start controlling its people. In the stories, one character stands up to the government and shows significant defiance unfortunately, they end up dying trying to fight the controlling governments (Paik 34). The utopian society experience ideal life as everything runs smoothly. It resembles paradise as people ...

The book is about a colonization “Bussard ramjet", named Leonora Christine with 50 colonists on-board put in space by the world with a mission to colonize a star. The crew aims at travelling to a planet thirty light years away; however with the ship set to travel at a speed close to speed of light, they hope to take just a few years thanks to relativity and time dilation. - The book includes physics, chemistry and engineering. Based on relativity, high ship speed and passage of time. Inter-relation between gas atoms, ship speed and passage of time is the main subject. The space ship ...

Kurt Vonnegut’s short story "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical science fiction tale about the dark side of a perfect, ideal American society. It is set in the future, and it is centered on the fact that constitutional Amendments were making everyone equal. All of the individuals of this time are made equal by mechanism which brings them down to the normality level in the story, which is really considered to be below-average in strength intelligence, strength, and aptitude. These individuals are deprived of their individuality. They are not even permitted to reach what is considered to be their complete potential. ...

Many authors use science fiction and fantasy to explore complex and difficult themes and issues that may be invisible in the everyday world. In both Ray Bradbury's “A Sound of Thunder” and Robert Heinlein's “--And He Built a Crooked House--,” the authors use the hypothetical science fiction worlds and technologies that exist only in the abstract to discuss issues and themes that apply directly to the current day. Both Bradbury and Heinlein are masters of the science fiction genre, creating worlds and scenarios that are both whimsical and impactful to the present day. “A Sound of Thunder” follows a corporation ...

Identify the members of the League and the books they come from. Who are the writers of these works and what kind of literature seems to be the main source of inspiration for the comic? The members of the League include Captain Nemo (Prince Dakkar), The Invisible Man (Hawley Griffin), The Honourable Mr. Edward Hyde, and Allan Quatermain. The team was reportedly gathered by its leader, Wilhelmina Murray. Captain Nemo was the character that was apparently developed in a novel written by Jules Verne and entitled Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. As could be deduced, the original literary ...

When Bruce Sterling published his article “Slipstream” in SF Eye #5 (n.pag..), he defined a genre that from then on would be characterized by a variety of words. He said that slipstream “is a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange; the way that living in the twentieth century makes you feel, if you are a person of a certain sensibility”. He described this new kind of writing as “a fantastic, surreal sometimes, speculative on occasion, but not rigorously so”. The whole of the article narrates how the literary science fiction genre’s chance at being “worthy literature” has passed, and explained ...

Robotics is the science or branch of technology that studies the design and construction of machines that are able of doing tasks, done by the human being or that require the use of some level of intelligence. In most cases robots are design in order to do some level of automation of a process or in other cases they are built in order to simulate human behavior; this last one situation is been one of the most longed achievement of modern science. Robotics is one of the fields where the human most have put effort on during the past ...

When people, especially politicians, talk about the future, they often refer to the present as working towards a more perfected version of future. Their agendas are directly associated with this more perfected reality of the future. The futurist sociologist Jean Baudrillard however sees this as a fallacy. He believes the intrinsic state of human nature, the completion and perfection of knowledge as one that will always lead to us being incomplete and without our most basic need as the search for truth and understanding as unfulfilled. This essay explores those ramifications 50-100 years in the future. Baudrillard believed that words ...

Baudrillard mentions that postmodern simulacra and simulation are no longer a question of imitation but rather an analysis of how images of the real are substituting for the real. However, he does not suggest that the postmodern culture is fully artificial since the concept of artificiality still needs some sense of reality against which to recognize the deceit. To simulate refers to the pretence of having what one doesn’t have while the opposite (dissimulate) refers to the pretence of not having what one has. However, simulating is not pretending since it threatens the difference between reality and imagination while ...

The world of the dystopia is one type of science fiction story that often presents a world in chaos; these works are dark and gloomy, showing us what is in store if human society continues down its path of consumerism and control (Heuser, 2003). The cyberpunk genre is full of these stories - the works of Philip K. Dick often show polluted, grimy worlds where morality is fluid and people sell their identity and sense of selves to the highest bidder. However, Dick also find sways to demonstrate hope and optimism despite the terrible settings their characters find themselves in, ...

ALIEN IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER Abstract Stanley Weinbaum and Frederic Brown wrote stories that broke new ground in science fiction. In the stories “A Martian Odyssey” and “Arena,” they created aliens that had nothing that was physiologically or motivationally similar to human beings. The aliens in these stories had capabilities that were, in some ways, superior to humans. However, the struggles that characterize these stories are recognizably human, displaying as they do human fears and shortcomings. Keywords: Stanley Weinbaum, Frederic Brown, “A Martian Odyssey,” “Arena.” ALIEN IN THE EYES OF THE BEHOLDER ...

Michael Crichton has left an immortal mark on the minds of innumerable readers who have been left in an awe of the content and panache of his literary works which have proved to be among the most famous and influential works of art in the past century. Lost World, The Andromela Strain and Timeline have been extremely popular and genre defining novels. Jurassic Park (1990) is one of the best works penned by the stalwart author and goes on to produce a perfect mesh of theoretical scientific findings and technical advancements. The author caters the gazillion readers with a quintessential mystery ...

A theory is used to explain a particular phenomenon in the world. The theory explains the reasons for the existence of the world. A theory must be consistent and correct for it to be successful. Theories are of two types, scientific theory and theory in general. A scientific theory is applied when the object of the study under consideration is measurable. Studies of ethics, knowledge and truth require theories in general. The philosophical theory is a type of theory in general. It accounts for the general philosophy. The philosophical theory comprises of statements which are believed to be true by the ...

Czernada, J. E. (2006). Science fiction & scientific literature. The Science Teacher, 4, 39,40,41,42.

This paper used to expound on the differences and advantages of science fiction literature over scientific literature. Julie Czernada argues that science fiction has so much to offer in terms of proper science while addressing the same time the literacy basics. The article seeks to justify why science fiction literature should be incorporated in school syllabi.

The Science fiction &Scientific literature article cites “science fiction literature should not be read only for enjoyment but rather to help students dig ...

The time machine is a story of the time traveler who undertakes expeditious actions of establishing a time machine which ultimately projects into the future. The traveler’s time machine goes way in to 802701 AD, where he finds himself in a different world. According to the narrator, the traveler’s bumps into small creatures, which are referred to as Eloi. Unfortunately, the traveler’s time machine disappears and explores all means to find the time machine. During his exploration actions in search for the time machine, he discovers other creatures which to Eloi refer to as the Morlocks. Accordingly Morlocks live ...

Ray Bradbury’s science fiction is much different than that of many of the other practitioners of the craft. While many science fiction writers focus on adult adventures throughout the galaxies and the dystopian future that awaits all of humanity, Bradbury spends a great deal of time looking at the interactions of children with each other and with their family members. A great deal of the drama in Fahrenheit 451 turns on Guy Montag’s relationship with the young Clarisse; the summer joys of Douglas Spaulding, who is just old enough to realize that moments of happiness are as fleeting ...

Our scientific understanding of the vastness of the universe and the relative insignificance of Earth and human civilization on a galactic scale increases every day. The first planet outside our solar system was discovered in 1992, and since then, hundreds have been found. A study done at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2011, for example, estimated that the Milky Way Galaxy alone should contain about 2 billion Earth-like planets. If this estimate is accurate, then the statistical likelihood that at least one, if not more, has also evolved life, possibly even intelligent life, is higher than ever before. How ...

Since the rise of computers, robots and robotics have captured the imagination of mankind. Science fiction has made many observations regarding robots and potential future artificial intelligence; utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics to examine fundamental questions of humanity and philosophy has been a method that is used by a variety of different science fiction writers. By creating a world in which artificial intelligence can be compared and contrasted to human intelligence, writers and philosophers can answer questions about the nature of humanity, ethics, and the future of the human race as a whole. In a world where robots are used seven days a week, ...

One question that the world will perhaps never stop asking is “what is the meaning of our life?” Every philosopher in one way or another centers their career around answering this question. Is not literature and art just an attempt at either answering this question or of making the case for one possible answer? One common theme is that the answer is not a static turn of phrase, but one that is found through a journey that endeavors to understand. This essay analyzes how that question becomes answered through the journey’s of protagonists in four contemporary novels: Pauhlo Coelho’s “ ...

The end of the Second World War left the world with two super powers who competed to control every aspect of the world politics, economics and social life. The United State had a doctrine based on western civilization that was imprinted in the Capitalistic theory. The USSR had its own theory of civilization based on the communist form of leadership. The capitalistic mode of development was blamed on placing powers on individual leaving the government with minimal control. The communist theory believed that property should be owned by the society with control by the government on its utilization. The two ...

Science furthering the lifespan of the human race has been at the core of scientific research since the dawn of time, organ donor-ship, organ transplants, advances in medical technology, like in vitro fertilisation and cloning, what seemed like science fiction to people of the past are now commonplace, everyday affairs for those living today. Yesterday’s science fiction becomes tomorrow’s science fact. What if we could genetically alter babies to be immune to all diseases, what if we could breed them to be super intelligient, physically strong or talented? What if people could choose the traits of ...

The “Coyote” by Allen Steele is a thrilling science fiction literal work. The work employs imagery and proper descriptive language. The novel is also unique and avoids the conventional styles such as incorporating chapters but instead presents the work in chunks. It also employs the first and third person narrative style. This is a great portrayal of the liberty that Allen Steele uses in his style of writing. The Allen Steele’s work also illustrates a fabulous portrayal of diverse and very rich personas (characters) in their attempt to dominate a new planet. As I read the book. I noticed the uncanny ...

On the fifth of July 1996 the first cloned sheep was born, they called her ‘Dolly’ and she sparked off one of the hottest debates of the twentieth century, the debate over the nature of and consequences of cloning a human being, thus starting the idea of bio-ethics. Science furthering the lifespan of the human race has been at the core of scientific research since the dawn of time, organ donor-ship, organ transplants, advances in medical technology, like in vitro fertilisation, what seemed like science fiction to people of the past are now commonplace, everyday affair for those living ...

Around the World in Eighty Days is fantastic read written by Jules Verne. The book is a vivid description of a perfect Englishman who bets a wager to travel around the world in eighty days (Verne Ch. 1). The journey peels off the hardened layer of the aloof English man who shows very little emotions and he evolves into an emotional, adventurous man who cares for his friends and is also very resourceful in challenging situations. The story fascinates the reader for the love, adventure, friendship, and culture that oozes from cover to cover. Even through the hasty detail of events, the ...

The tensions associated with robotic development in modern culture mirror many of the tensions that have informed the interactions that people have with technological advances. While the twentieth century began in an atmosphere of optimism in the face of the technological promise of the twentieth century, the events that the new technology brought to pass served as a major impediment to the development of that optimism. Between the years 1914 and 1945, the world saw the advent of the armored tank, the bomber and fighter in the air, rockets carrying bombs, mustard gas and other biological weapons, the use of ...

This video is compiled by Khan Academy. It talks about the functions of the Electoral College and how the voting process is conducted within the organization. According to this video, the Electoral College is bestowed with the responsibility of electing the President of the United States. It is clear from this movie that though presidents are popularly elected, the final determinant of their incumbency lies in the Electoral College. First of all, the Electoral College is composed of all senators and congressmen from all the 52 states of the United States. The total electoral votes for any given state ...

When first encountering Ray Kurzweil’s movie, The Singularity is Near, described as “a true story about the future,” the first thing people may wonder is, “What is a ‘Singularity?’” (“Movie Trailer”). As the trailer moves through fast-paced quotes from Kurzweil and a number of his colleagues, one unnamed person explains, “The singularity is the point where our technology and our selves are no longer two different things” (“Movie Trailer”). The film argues that this future with the Singularity is not far away, in fact, another unnamed person in the movie trailer claims, “I think you can make an argument that the ...

The interaction between science and fiction in our day and age is for everybody to see and experience. The subject is a vast one and often kept separate from formal discussions its effects on the society and how it is affected by it. A science fiction topic which gained massive popularity in the decade of the 80’s and continued through to the 90’s was the subject of virtual reality. Virtual Reality simply refers to environments generated by a means of a computer program where physical presence is simulated. Such environments can be imaginary but very often bear close resemblance to ...

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In the film, the replicant models are only given four-year life spans because they are genetically engineered to be better than humans - stronger, more efficient, better reaction times. By the time they reach four years old, though, they have begun developing their own memories and emotional reactions. Because they are already adult sized and supposedly better than humans in important ways, there is a fear that the emotional immaturity they express may cause greater harm or that they will come to replace humans. This can be seen by comparing the two-year-old model Leon with the four-year-old model ...

1) In Chapter 1, Captain Carter runs into a scrape with Indians. How does this establish his sense of honor and old-fashioned values? 2) In Chapter 2, John Carter is magically whisked away to Mars without explanation. Is there a reason that the novel does not explain the reason for his passing to Mars, and is it important to the story to know why? 3) In Chapter 3, John Carter arrives on Mars and meets the Tharks. How does his interactions with them echo his earlier interactions with the Indians? 4) In Chapter 4, John Carter states that " ...

2001: A Space Odyssey is a Stanley Kubrick movie that came out in 1968. The movie is widely regarded as one of the best science fiction movies of all times. The movie is much more than just science fiction story with breathtaking visuals (for its time) and action sequences that are now so commonly associated with such cinema. Since its release, 2001 has been a subject for forum discussion of many thinkers and philosophers, talking about the hidden meaning and message imparted by the movie. Kubrick had also famously said “You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and ...

During the last weekend, we settled down to watch Lost with a friend of mine. After 30 minutes of watching the first episode of season six, my friend confessed of highly detesting the movie. Her reason was that the movie is highly fictional, and thus it is complicated to follow up. Needing to prop up an argument, I asked her why she thought the movie was disgusting. Her assertion was that the movie is fictional and has scientific fables that keep on “throwing the viewer back and forth”. This prompted me to lay out everything for her using Toulmin’s ...

According to McGraw-Hill (2001), “between the year 1900 and the 1960s, science fiction was greatly influenced by the hopes, fears and concerns associated with the social and political changes that took place across the world” (p. 24). For example, many nations in the world were struggling with liberations from colonialism and wars had ensued in many parts of the world. Also, there were various changes that occurred in intellectual and spiritual aspects that were associated with social transformations. Some scholars tackled issues to do with gothic mystery, pessimistic visions, and apocalyptic visions in a bid to expound on issues of ...

Cyberpunk is a fiction genre that depicts a high-tech environment while focusing on low-life characters in the story. Cyberpunk was influenced mainly by postmodernism, so it depicts advanced technology while also focusing on revolutions in the social order. “The Matrix” is an example of a cyberpunk film that uses a desperate and dark setting with advanced technology to address the despair in the social position among the human characters and their fight with the oppressive machines. “Count Zero” depicts a struggle for power in cyberspace between various corporations and the roles of low-life characters in that power struggle. The common theme in “The Matrix” ...

Science fiction is a fairly new genre in the spectrum of literature; the earliest practitioners include Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells and even Mark Twain (if you’ve read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, then you’ve read an early work of science fiction) – both of whom wrote in the nineteenth century. Some of this has a lot to do with the fact that science and technology did not really take off until the early 1800’s, which brought the Industrial Revolution. What with steam engines powering vast machines, the imagination of writers soon foresaw the wonders that those ...

War and technological innovation have often gone hand-in-hand. Advancements in weaponry are, of course, inevitable under the circumstances of armed conflict, but the necessities of logistical concerns like supply, transport, communication and medicine are likewise sources of invention. World War I, a global conflict the likes of which the world had never seen, yielded an unprecedented number of technical advances, the magnitude of which were commensurate with a conflict large enough to destroy the old world order. This was the first war that brought entire citizen populations under fire. As such, it was inevitable that the world’s governments should turn ...

In the text Time Out of Joint by Philip Kindred Dick there is inconvenient truth. The text is a Science Fiction written by a novelist who has written numerous outstanding and influential novels. Dick’s stories habitually dealt-with realism as delusion, Gnosticism, mad people, drugged-up individuals, individuals who seem mad but are in actual fact drugged-up, individuals who appear drugged-up who are actually mad, government schemes, malevolence corporations, eldritch abomination and simulacra. In Dick’s works there are twisted endings and revelations that splinters the world of a reader.

In the text Time Out of Joint, he uses a theme where he compares ...

The works of Ray Bradbury have long been held up as examples of speculative fiction: the forms of genres which, generally, encompass a wide range of imaginative features. His work often presents common themes such as those with pertain to the future, space, science fiction and the dystopian qualities of future societies. For example, in Fahrenheit 451, Bradbury discusses a future society where books are banned: presenting the reader with a hint of anti-meta narrative, given that the book is the very thing in the readers’ hands. This also represents Bradbury’s most famous work: it is universally accepted as being one ...

Hsun Tzu in his essay “Man’s nature is evil” tries to employ various strategies so as to convince the reader that human nature is truly wicked. He believes that the natural desires of a man are evil and if somebody follows his nature, he must be evil. This is a deductive reasoning that does not convince the reader since there are those who follow their nature and yet are still good. He says “Anyone who follows his nature must be involved in bickering and contention, and must disobey the societal rules and forms, and must be a criminal." Tzu uses various ...

In the 1982 science-fiction film Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott takes great care to fashion a detailed, unique dystopian world for the characters to inhabit. The setting is Los Angeles in the (at the time of production) dystopian future of 2019, where corporations rule the world and synthetic humans called replicants have been outlawed. The film follows bounty hunter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he is tasked to hunt down several replicants who have escaped to Earth. The care taken in the creation of the world of Blade Runner, in combination with the dreamlike, meandering story, creates a visual and cultural ...