List Of Science Fiction Themes

OVERARCHING THEMES

See Also: Science fiction genre

Cosmology

--- Creation Of The Universe

--- Ultimate Fate Of The Universe

--- Omega Point

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:

---# Iain 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

History

--- Alternate History

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

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

--- Secret History

Fantasy Fiction

The Future

Horror Fiction

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

Parallel World s or universes.

---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.

Religious Ideas In Science Fiction

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

Sociology and Sociobiology

--- Astrosociology

---return to Feudalism

---hive-like Eusocial societies

---future Caste System s

TYPES OF BEINGS

Android s and Gynoid s

--- Cyborg s

--- Robot s and Humanoid Robot s

--- Replicant s

--- Sexbot s

Superhuman s

Extraterrestrial Life (see Extraterrestrial Life In Culture )

--- Alien Invasion

--- Astrobiology

--- Benevolent Aliens

--- First Contact

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

Alternate intelligences

--- Artificial Intelligence

---Beings of pure mentality

--- Hive Mind s

--- Infomorph s - memories, characters and consciences of persons being uploaded to a computer or storage media

--- Noosphere - the "sphere of human thought"

--- Solipsism - a belief that the universe is entirely the creation of one's own mind

Mutants

Shapeshifters

Clone s

Uplifted Animals - using technology to "raise" non-human animals to human evolutionary levels

Characters

--- Detective

BODY AND MIND ALTERATIONS

Bio-implant s

--- Body Modification , including Genetic Modification

--- Bionics

--- Cybernetics

Invisibility

Life Extension and Immortality

--- Artificial Organ s

--- Cloning

--- Cryonics

--- The Organ Bank Problem - a proposed problem in which the reduced death rate caused by Organ Transplant s would lead to a shortage of organs available for transplant

Mind interfacing

---Memory removal/editing

--- Mind Control

--- Mind Uploading

---Neural implants to directly interface with machinery

Nanotechnology

Psi Powers And Psychic Phenomenon

--- Clairvoyance

--- Telepathy

--- Telekinesis

Resizing (size-changing, miniaturization, magnification, shrinking, and enlargement)

Shapeshifting

Telepathy

Teleportation

POSSIBLE FUTURES

Alien Invasion s

Apocalypses Or World Wide Disasters

Post-apocalyptic Life - new societies that develop after the event

Posthumanism

Ultimate Fate Of The Universe

POLITICAL STRUCTURES

See Also: Politics in Science Fiction

Dystopia s and Utopia s

Galactic Empire s

Interstellar Federation Of Planets

)

World Government

Workable )

HABITATS

Arcologies - enormous habitats (hyperstructures) of extremely high human population density

Space Colonization

--- Terraforming

TRAVEL

Travel To The Earth's Center

Time Travel

---. 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?

Space Exploration

--- Interstellar Travel

-- Faster-than-light travel and communications

- Hyperspace

- Warp Drive s

- Wormhole s

- Ansible s

---Very nearly light speed

-- Bussard Ramjet s

--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, etc.

-- Terraforming

TECHNOLOGIES

Artificial Gravity

Artificial Intelligence

--- Von Neumann Machine s

Singularity

--- Moreaus / Unpeople

Virtual Reality and Simulated Reality

Weapons

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List Of Science Fiction Themes