Futurism logo

Science Fiction: Science as Craft

Writing science fiction is a craft which can transform our world.

By Nadia DavidsonPublished 7 years ago 5 min read
Like
Circuit board or city? From the minutiae of circuit boards to the vast sprawling expanses of cityscapes, science crafts the future. 

Writing is a craft. We talk of crafting a story, and of wordsmiths who forge metaphors from the white heat of their imaginations. The creation of fiction, therefore, involves a process akin to that of making art. This process involves the mind constructing a fabrication which will more clearly define our reality, or even go beyond our understanding of what reality is.

Any fiction will, therefore, be rather more than reality, creating, as it does, a heightened, more dramatic sense of events; even if the storyline is based on something which really happened. In science fiction, this sense of heightened reality is taken to extremes, taken, in fact, often to the point of departing from reality altogether. In that instance, we are verging upon fantasy.

However, most science fiction, by its very nature, tries to ground its narrative in some scientific plausibility, often extrapolating from the current and most recent developments in science. Which means that science fiction is one of the most easily datable forms of literature, since our understanding of science is constantly being updated as new knowledge is gained.

This is most notable in the type of stories known as 'planetary romances,' popular even up until the late 50's, which set protagonists on habitable planets in our own solar system, which, as we now know, is not even remotely possible. The romanticized wet jungle Venus and arid, canal-covered Mars, both hosting civilizations and life cycles as varied as Earth's, are a thing of the past. Our solar system is a much more hostile place than we had, at first, anticipated.

In recent years, there has been a certain nostalgia for that vanished vision of how our universe could have been, since the shattering of the illusion. So much so that there have been some small 'revivals' of pulp style science fiction. And even scientific reasons (within the confines of a story) for why Venus and Mars could have evolved to be the Venus and Mars of the pulps.

Speaking of Mars, it is appropriate to mention Ray Bradbury’s, Martian Chronicles. Compare this to something rather more contemporary; say, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Green Mars and Blue Mars trilogy, and you see at once the inherent flaw in science fiction.

But Bradbury will always be read. His art, his gloriously crafted works of fiction are pure literary genius. Yet the content will, of necessity become more dated with each passing decade. (Though some of his visions are still highly disturbing today).

Yet, compare Bradbury's colonists discovering a habitable Mars, with remnants of a vanished civilization lingering in the background, to Robinson's terraforming epic, set against the harsh rugged backdrop of a well-mapped Mars. No canals in sight. Instead the well realized, and scientifically explored Great Rift Canyon and Tharsis Bulge, as well as Olympus Mons.

However scientific accuracy does not necessarily make for a more enjoyable read. I would choose Bradbury over Robinson every time.

This contrary nature of ours, in part, accounts for the revival of the more romantic pulp-type stories and also the rise in popularity of the fantasy genre itself. The more we discover about the workings of our world, the more we retreat into fictions of wholly unreal dreamscapes. Some of which, today, with the semi-mystical theories being dreamed up by scientists, to explain the continually weird workings of quantum physics, could in fact come true.

As has always been the case, the boundaries between the genres is blurred. Which in the best literature is as it should be. The term speculative fiction is therefore more commonly employed these days. In fact, even though he is associated with the science fiction genre, Ray Bradbury considered himself a fantasy writer. He said that this was because he believed: “science-fiction describes the 'real' while fantasy describes the 'unreal'".

Reality is the touchstone of literature. But what happens when literature becomes the basis of how we envision our future. This is the grand role science fiction plays in our lives. As pointed out by another giant of the genre, Issac Asimov, who says: “A few years ago the idea of a computer you could put in your pocket was just science fiction” And now we have mobile phones, which have a processing power greater than that of all the computers combined, which helped send Man to the moon.

Innovations in space flight take their cue from stories. The mission to the moon was a romantic leap of faith by scientists who had grown up with the marvelous tales of such exploits. Private companies offer trips into space because it has been a collective vision dreamed of by Humanity since before the dawn of the space age.

As much as writers craft their ideas into fabulous flights of fantasy, so too, do scientists and engineers craft the physical fabric or our reality into the shapes these visionaries, long ago, dreamed up. How many ideas which were 'just science fiction' a hundred, fifty or only twenty years ago, have become real, tangible objects, or even commonplaces in our everyday world.

Atomic bombs were predicted long before they were ever used, Solar power, first used in early spacecraft, are now a feature of our homes, Planet finding telescopes have notched up a grand total of 3,440 exoplanets discovered to date, which were next to impossible to detect as little as 30 years ago. And the list goes on. From small wonders like the water bed to the first artificial satellites (first predicted in 1869). And, of course, the computer in your pocket...

book reviewfutureliteraturesciencescience fictionvirtuosos
Like

About the Creator

Nadia Davidson

I am a fine artist living in the Highlands of Scotland. I also write, finding that both forms of expression help me to put forward my ideas in different ways. I am fascinated by the unusual, paranormal, metaphysical and science fictional.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.