Why is Science Fiction Important?

Why is Science Fiction Important? Science fiction is a focal point in popular media right now. It is a great time to consider what science fiction means to us, how it has shaped society, and how it can inspire our students to reach deeper levels of understanding in the classroom.

Science fiction is a focal point in popular media right now.

With the Foundation series, Dune, and the final season of the Expanse have all premiered recently, it is a great time to consider what science fiction means to us, how it has shaped society, and how it can inspire our students to reach deeper levels of understanding in the classroom. Whether you like science, mathematics, art, politics, sociology, psychology, history, or literature; whether it’s finding the mechanical Easter eggs in the latest space battles of the Expanse, pondering the nature of destiny and free will in Dune, or considering whether it is ethical to use mathematics to predict the future in Foundation, science fiction has something to inspire anyone to think outside themselves. It is a catalyst for creativity and inquiry, it is a warning and a guide for humanity, a bridge between past present and future, and no matter how fanciful the setting it is a reflection of ourselves.

I am inspired by a 1978 article in the New York Times written by Carl Sagan, famous physicist and avid science fiction reader. He wrote: "The greatest human significance of science fiction may be as thought experiments, as attempts to minimise future shock, as contemplations of alternative destinies. This is part of the reason that science fiction has so wide an appeal among young people: It is they who will live in the future…

One of the great benefits of science fiction is that it can convey bits and pieces, hints and phrases, of knowledge unknown or inaccessible to the reader...I think it is not an exaggeration to say that, if we survive, science fiction will have made a vital contribution to the continuation and benign evolution of our civilisation.” 

I asked Sci-fi Lovers at BSN: What sci-fi do you remember fondly and how did it inspire you?  

• Mr Smith remembers The Three- Body Problem by Liu Cixin: “The story goes further than any book to really think about the nature of civilisation and what would really happen if we did discover extra-terrestrial life.” 

• Mrs Shephard remembers The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a series by Douglas Adams: "Don’t Panic! These are somethings that I know to be true: 1) 6 x 7 = 42 2) Dolphins are one of the most intelligent animals in the world 3) Vogons write terrible poetry (the third worst poetry in the Universe) 4) Earth is a giant computer which, for billions of years, has been figuring THE answer to the ultimate question of life, love and the universe until sadly it was/will be accidentally destroyed by Vogons who were building an intergalactic highway." 

• Mrs Chin remembers To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis: "I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There's comedy and romance as a time travelling cat threatens to disrupt the space-time continuum.” 

• Mr Griffiths remembers Minority Report by Philip K. Dick: “It was the way it gave an interesting look at ethical questions that are relevant today. I think it does it better than a lot of others and it is much less scary than Black Mirror, because that is definitely going to happen.” 

• Mr Burrows recommends The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson: "Just an outstanding series of novels about mankind settling on Mars and all of the political and personal intrigue that such a grand undertaking might entail.  It's hard sci-fi and quite technical in places, but its also very readable and ultimately - like all of the best sci-fi - is fundamentally a very human story."