Science Fiction Themes

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Science Fiction

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Science Fiction Themes

Android s and Gynoid s

--- Cyborg s and Bionics and Cybernetics

--- Robot s

Apocalypses or world wide disasters

---See also Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction

Arcologies

Artificial Gravity

Artificial Intelligence

--- Von Neumann Machine s

Clone s

Colonization

--- Terraforming

Cosmology

--- Creation Of The Universe

--- Ultimate Fate Of The Universe

--- Omega Point

Cryonics

Cyberpunk

--- Steampunk

Detective

Ecology

--- Symbiont s

---Science Fiction is used to raise awareness of Ecological ideas. Lends itself well to dystopian futures. Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson are known for their serious concern with ecological issues.

Economics

---"Age of Greater Scarcity", often in connection with ecological or post-apocalyptic themes. In such Dystopia s, people are poorer and have fewer resources to draw on.

--- Post-"Age Of Scarcity" (arguments over how to distribute resources are irrelevant since anyone can have anything they reasonably want). Examples include:

---# Ian M. Banks ' The Culture

---# Cory Doctorow 's '' Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom '', which uses a " Reputation Economy "

---# Frederik Pohl 's The Midas Plague

Extraterrestrial Life (see Extraterrestrial Life In Culture )

--- Alien Invasion

--- Astrobiology

--- Benevolent Aliens

--- First Contact

--Principles of non-interference (e.g. Prime Directive )

Fantasy Fiction

Future

---Advanced technology in the future

Galactic Empire

History

--- Alternate History

---History repeating itself (either on long or short scales)

---Scientific Prediction of the future (e.g. Psychohistory )

--- Secret History

Horror Fiction

Immortality and Life Extension

Intangibility

Invisibility

Language

---Alien languages (e.g. Klingon )

---All humans speaking one language (possibly Esperanto )

---Current human languages evolving/splitting

---The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis being strongly true (e.g. Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delany or The Languages Of Pao by Jack Vance )

--- Universal Translator s (e.g. Babel Fish )

Military - strategy, weapons, ranks, technologies.

--- Ray Gun s

--- Space Warfare

Mind

--- Artificial Intelligence

---Beings of pure mentality

--- Hive Mind s

---Memory removal/editing

--- Mind Control

--- Mind Uploading

---Neural implants and interfacing with machinery (directly)

--- Solipsism

Mutant s

Nanotechnology

Parallel World s or universes.

Planets In Science Fiction

Politics In Science Fiction

--- Dystopia s and (supposed) Utopia s

--- Galactic Empire

--- Interstellar Federation Of Planets

---)

--- World Government

---Workable )

Post-apocalyptic Science Fiction and new societies that develop after the event

---There is a space based civilization variant of this theme. This plot device allows writers to write Soft Science Fiction while accounting for the lack of technological advancement and thus similarity to the present day.

Posthumanism

---Enhancement of the organism

-- Body Modification , including Genetic Modification

-- Cyborg s

Psi Powers And Psychic Phenomenon

--- Clairvoyance

--- Telepathy

--- Telekinesis

Resizing

Sex (including Gender Role s, Polygamy , Sexuality and Procreation )

Shapeshifting

Simulated Reality

Sociology and Sociobiology

---return to Feudalism

---hive-like Eusocial societies

---future Caste System s

Space Exploration

--- Interstellar Travel

-- Faster-than-light travel and communications

- Hyperspace

- Warp Drive s

- Wormhole s

- Ansible s

---Very nearly light speed

--Ursula LeGuin's NAFAL ships, and the Twin Paradox

---Much slower than Light

-- Generation Ship

-- Sleeper Ship

---Moving planets

--- Space Station s

--- Colonization of Other Planets, moons, Asteroid s.

-- Terraforming

Superhuman s

Technology and its side effects

--- Nanotechnology

--- Singularity

Telepathy

Teleportation

Time Travel

---s. While alternate history has its own category (see above), it often occurs in time travel stories as well.

--- Anachronism

---The Grandfather Paradox -- e.g. Can someone go back in time and kill his parents before they beget the killer?

Uplift -- e.g. using technology to "raise" non-human animals to human evolutionary levels.

--- Moreaus / Unpeople

Virtual Reality