What is Science Fiction?

A working definition might look something like this: "Science fiction is fiction that extrapolates from current scientific understanding to speculate on possible futures." Yet not all sci-fi is set in the future. Stories that speculate on the effects on society of inventions appearing before their time (such as The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, that posited computers in the Victorian era) are certainly science fiction.

Generally speaking, it is scientific plausibility that is the hallmark of SF (see Sci Fi for a discussion of genre terminology). That said, the writer can certainly get away with enormous leaps - faster-than-light travel is impossible under any current scientific theory, yet is a staple of space-faring sci-fi.

Early Sci-Fi

While some would make the case that myths such as Jason and the Argonauts were very early science fiction, it is more conventional to consider that the genre as such didn't appear until the latter part of the nineteenth century, with works of (then-called) speculative fiction from writers like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells.

The Victorians were fascinated with 'modern' technology, and full of optimism; most speculative stories dealt with fantastic voyages to fabulous places and returning. Utopian, not dystopian, milieux were in vogue. Speculative fiction of the era was very much a male preserve.

The Pulps

SF as a literary genre got a boost in the 1920s with the appearance, in 1926, of Amazing Stories (later Amazing Science Fiction), a magazine edited by Hugo Gernsback, for whom the annual sci-fi awards, the Hugo, is named. He called the kind of stories he published 'scientifiction'. No one else did.

Stories were typically of the gee-whiz lets-make-a-rocket variety that appealed to the boys who made their own 'crystal sets' or radios in their workshops.

Astounding Stories (later Analog) launched in 1930, and was edited by John W. Campbell from 1938 to 1971; it is Campbell who is credited with fostering the writers who are now considered writers of the Golden Age of Sci-Fi.

More pulps followed - Galaxy, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Worlds of If. Few remain in publication, but the authors who got their start in their pages went on to write novels that fed a growing appetite for speculative stories based on science.

A Changing Genre

In the early days, it was enough to go to a strange new place. Much was made of the vehicle, the environment, the very strangeness. Think Gulliver's Travels - he went, he observed, he returned.

But soon, inventive authors were using the genre to pose problems. What are the implications of technology X on human society? How do you mine ice on the moon? Why do you need to? Wars, aliens, adventure - the thirties through the fifties were the era of the 'space opera'.

By the sixties and seventies, describing space travel became as passe as describing driving a car. It could be assumed as a given, and writers went further to explore implications of science on the lives of individuals. What would it mean to our culture and beliefs if it were discovered that we were a seeded population, left eons ago by aliens?

What if cascading ecological problems created fertility problems for the human race, and we had to turn to cloning to perpetuate ourselves? What would it be like to grow up one of a series of 'sisters' all identical except for age? (See Kate Wilhelm's Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang.)

Sci Fi Today

Today's SF writer never had it so good. The genre is as open to almost any kind of story you can imagine, from multi-generational family epic (Dune) to poignant character studies to speculation on alternative histories (The American South wins the Civil War, Kennedy survives assassination and lives to become a tyrant, etc.) to sociological treatises. Cyberpunk and steampunk, boys' own adventures of the Andy Hardy type, mind control and disembodied minds, you can find it somewhere in contemporary sci-fi.