1. Science Fiction: A History of Ideas, Change, and Anticipation

2. 1800’s Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
“wonder and caution at the new sciences”
H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds

3. 1920’s and 1930’s Amazing Stories magazine
Novels by H.G. Wells, Jules Verne
Belief in the power of the human species
Astounding Science Fiction magazine—Robert A. Heinlein, Issac Asimov
Analog, Issac Asimov Science Fiction

4. 1940’s and 1950’s
Dystopia/utopia –the question of a social organization (utopia—a perfect world; dystopia—a world gone completely wrong)
Brave New World (Huxley), 1984 (Orwell)

5. 1960’s Expanding universe Space exploration for its own sake
And humans are changed by it
-understand their own world in a new way
--also humans hurting themselves with their technology (Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury)
--economy as danger
--relationship between man and machine (2001 Space Oddessey)

6. 1970’s, 1980’s
Alien good will (E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Cocoon)

7. 1990’s, 2000’s Back to threats to humankind
--from outside and from themselves, and their own weaknesses can’t handle it (but this time including new technology)
Back to increasingly rapid technological change
--will it exceed our ability to understand and control it (e.g. uploading human minds into avatars or machines –transcending flesh and blood)
Humans evolving biologically
--transcending their
own limitations (Avatar)

8. Right Now Over all, still a basic belief in human adaptability
but less confidence in the scientific method—maybe science is not the final answer -- uncertainty

9. Like us, Science Fiction evolves
The sci-fi writers (speculative fiction writers) try to stay one step ahead of our own technology and its moral ramifications