SCIENCE FICTION : THE WONDER OF HUMAN IMAGINATION

Sci-Fi as a storyScience fiction explores the probable consequences of some improbable or impossible transformation of the basic conditions of human (or intelligent non-human) existence. This transformation need not be a technological invention, but may be some mutation of known biological or physical reality: artificial or extraterrestrial life-forms and travel through time are favourite subjects. Science fiction stories may involve Utopian political speculation, or satire, as in Zamyatin's We (1924), but most rely on the marvellous appeal of fantasy. Several early precedents have been claimed, most plausibly Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), but true modern science fiction begins with Verne's Voyage au centre de la terre (1864) and Wells's The Time Machine (1895). The term science fiction was first given general currency by Hugo Gernsback, editor of the popular Amazing Stories magazine from 1926, and is usually abbreviated to SF (the alternative 'sci-fi' is frowned upon by devotees). Once uniformly dismissed as pulp trash, SF gained greater respect from the 1950s, as writers like Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and John Wyndham expanded its range; themes of alien invasion and brain-washing became especially popular at the height of the Cold War. Among other important writers are J. G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Lem, William Gibson, Kurt Vonnegut, and Walter M. Miller Jr. SF is also popular in the cinema: notable films include Lang's Metropolis (1927), Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Star Wars (1977) and its sequels, Alien (1979) and its sequels, Bladerunner (1983), and Independence Day (1996). Many SF television series have been extremely successful and the genre has also inspired video games, plays, and musicals.Sci-fi (SF or science fiction)SF is a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre's principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback. The Hugo Awards, given annually since 1953 by the World Science Fiction Society, are named after him. These achievement awards are given to the top SF writers, editors, illustrators, films, and "fanzines." World of science fictionScience fiction is a modern genre. Though writers in antiquity sometimes dealt with themes common to modern science fiction, their stories made no attempt at scientific and technological plausibility, the feature that distinguishes science fiction from earlier speculative writings and other contemporary speculative genres such as fantasy and horror. The genre formally emerged in the West, where the social transformations wrought by the Industrial Revolution first led writers and intellectuals to extrapolate the future impact of technology. By the beginning of the 20th century, an array of standard science fiction "sets" had developed around certain themes, among them space travel, robots, alien beings, and time travel. The customary "theatrics" of science fiction include prophetic warnings, utopian aspirations, elaborate scenarios for entirely imaginary worlds, titanic disasters, strange voyages, and political agitation of many extremist flavours, presented in the form of sermons, meditations, satires, allegories, and parodies-exhibiting every conceivable attitude toward the process of techno-social change, from cynical despair to cosmic bliss.Science fiction writers often seek out new scientific and technical developments in order to prognosticate freely the techno-social changes that will shock the readers' sense of cultural propriety and expand their consciousness.