Science fiction as a genre of modern literature is organically integrated into the public worldview, in the humanitarian culture of the 20th and early 21st centuries. It responds to a new type of “creative person,” as it is directed towards the future, contributes to the building of social projects of a new cultural and social reality. In modern humanitarian culture, it appears as an alternative to philosophical self-awareness. At the same time, it is a way that “brings” the self-awareness of culture in the person of its best representatives to the philosophical level of problems and ideas. One can say that science fiction, with its inherent literary, genre means of self-expression, shows the results, attitudes, and phenomena of a technogenic civilization. Achievements in the development of various technologies, including those directly related to human nature, biotechnologies, undoubtedly contributed to the emergence of the “anthropological imagination” characteristic of science fiction. They are associated with an attempt to anticipate the future of a changing human (Miller, 2012, pp. 38). At the same time, in its ultimate value-anthropological perspective, science fiction reflects not real technical achievements, but various theories, such as, for example, the ideas of a possible “posthuman” future.
It should be noted that science fiction, like science itself, is a cultural-historical phenomenon, and predicts not events, but their probability. The roots of this phenomenon go back to the mythological consciousness of the peoples of the world, religious and philosophical teachings, to the works of romantics and social utopias of the Renaissance. As a special type of fiction, science fiction, having arisen in the context of the historical development of civilization and culture, went through its formation in the 17th-19th centuries, simultaneously with modern science and scientific foresight. The birth of science fiction in the 19th century was facilitated, first of all, by the generalization of the experience accumulated by that time by mankind in various fields of knowledge.
It is known that there are many successful thought experiments – technological forecasts of science fiction writers regarding the future state of technogenic culture, indicating the special predictive capabilities of scientific fantasy. At the same time, it should be noted that, despite the success of certain technological predictions, the thought experiments of many science fiction writers did not create an integral “scientific” picture of the future. In addition, there were few significant fantastic works, where a qualitatively new experience would be offered, a new, original explanation would be given to one or another “thought experiment” (Easton & Schroeder, 2008, p. 54). Noticeable progress in the forms and scales of technological forecasting, although it testifies to the nonrandomness and usefulness of the predictive potential of science fiction, by itself, of course, does not eliminate the need for philosophical understanding. An attempt to purely “construct” the future with the “dream literature,” proceeding from reliance on the advanced objective information of science, is a utopian scientist consciousness.
About science, the process of cumulation and transformation of scientific knowledge, science fiction is not a passive reflector of certain achievements and ideas. It contributes to the formation of the futurological base of science and creates, as it were, a parallel, albeit conjugated with it, creative and cognitive reality of a person. According to researchers of the phenomenon of science fiction, writers, using the laws of scientific creativity, create their science – a “fantastic science” that goes “on a par” with conventional science and often outstrips it in predicting discoveries and so on, although they build exclusively thought experiments (Easton & Schroeder, 2008, p. 67). Even if some of the predictions are wrong, science fiction writers create models that can and do have an impact on people in science and technology.
In the culture of postmodernity, with its relative values, the criteria of science fiction change and erode through the realization of the rather large role of the author’s creative freedom in creating fantastic phenomena. As the researchers note, the line between reality and imagination is getting thinner and we are entering a world where fiction becomes a form of knowledge about tomorrow’s things (Miller, 2012, pp. 32-36). For example, in the work Nova by Samuel Delany, the topic of books about the search for the Grail is repeatedly raised, and there is a deep philosophical essence. The world created by the author seems very original and thoughtful. At the same time, the plot is unpredictable, and not always in a good way, somewhere even indistinct. The characters are strange (especially Tyy, Sebastian, and their animals), their behavior is illogical and unpredictable: “Right now I’m just a bright guy with a lot to say and nothing to say it about” (Delany, 2002, p. 8). Another society lives on different ideas; the author sometimes explains some of the features of the 32nd century, which for us, living in the 21st century, are incomprehensible or unusual.
Nova is a clear demonstration of how science fiction participates in the process of combining art, philosophy, and science, introducing to the information flow of technogenic culture, contributing to a change in the form of communication between people. In this far from the unambiguous process, science fiction performs a compensatory function in culture, complementing the pragmatic, “technological” imagination prevailing in the mass human, expanding his value-emotional living space in it. The way of perceiving the world, based on logical consistency, argumentation, and justification, which serves as the basis for any ideologies, is giving way to more holistic and existing coverage of the meaning of what is happening. Science fiction continues to actively influence the new creative image of humans, “winning” over philosophy. It manages to reach the level of explanation, criticism, but not traditionally philosophical. Rather, it approaches philosophical postmodernism, the philosophy of the unconscious, where in the first place there is the impact of images that penetrate the living space of a person. Here ideas are more easily assimilated by the mass consciousness, while the main philosophical problems are present in an immanent way.
Discussion of the idea of “improving” a person, creating a “new man” through the improvement of technogenic culture, the introduction of technical achievements into the nature of a human being, while retaining a craving for power and undivided power in him, are reduced in science fiction to sketching such pictures of the future. In them, there is a danger of total enslavement and emotional emasculation of the human. Thus, in essence, an image of the future destruction of the individual and society is created, which is seen in the work of Pat Cadigan Pretty Boy Crossover. People are afraid of change and death, they would rather choose to evade realities, or even decide to escape them by committing suicide (Cadigan, 1989, p. 19). They do whatever it is necessary to fit in the ‘norms,’ to be honored and immortal. The horridness of the situation is expressed in a short dialogue: “Who made you?” – “You mean recently?” (Cadigan, 1989, p. 20). Like the film The Matrix, this short story portrays protagonists that defeat the odds and decide to live in actual reality, choose to preserve their values, and do what is moral, despite the strong influence and pressure from society.
The plot of The Girl Who Was Plugged In by James Tiptree, Jr. also takes place in a bleak future where everything is under the control of the capitalist regime. Even though advertising is illegal, corporations can still persuade and control consumers through the celebrities they create to conduct placement of the product. The tragedy of individuals in this society is expressed on the very first pages: “The funky girl on the street, she just loves. Grooving on their beautiful lives, their mysterioso problems. No one ever told her about mortals who love a god and end up as a tree or a sighing sound. In a million years it’d never occur to her that her gods might love her back” (Tiptree, 1989, p.1). The protagonist, a 17-year-old, appeared on the list to become one of these celebrities after she attempted suicide caused by being ostracized by society due to her pituitary dystrophy (Tiptree, 1989). She was selected by a scout as the “remote operator” for a beautiful corporate creation Delphi, which was raised without a functioning brain from a modified embryo in a womb. The remote operator enables the company not to be afraid that the average celebrity will behave of own mind. P. Burke controls Delphi, and she is forced to say and do everything according to the “orders” from the company.
In addition, in response to the “technological” utopianism of science fiction, dystopian science fiction seeks to define the boundaries of the expansion of the human mind; doubt about the official scientist’s optimism is growing. Science fiction writers in their works are increasingly asking about the responsibility of science for the future of humans and mankind as a whole. In a certain sense, the fact that the dispute about the future of man is transferred to the field of philosophy becomes significant: science and, along with it, the positivist spirit, are accused of creating schematic models of social life or life in general (Stevenson, 2007, pp. 90-91). Science fiction not only reflects the self-awareness of a technogenic culture but also actively influences the public consciousness of a person of a given culture. This is a rather powerful information flow that allows a person to navigate the world of scientific ideas and technical achievements. With the help of digital technologies, cinematography, and other science fiction was able to expand and, as it were, bring closer the sphere of “imaginary” virtual images and projects of the future. Many classics in science fiction have representations and “sequels” in the form of movies and computer games.
Science fiction, as it originated in the time of Jules Verne and developed successfully throughout the 20th century, has now changed because time has changed, science has changed, the reader has changed. Naturally, science fiction has also evolved, and modern science fiction is not at all like the science fiction of the times of A. Asimov. Thus, science fiction helps to reveal the specification of a person’s worldview changes, and, therefore, it is an experimental and test platform for identifying the movement of the modern human system of views to the worldview inherent in the postmodern human. A characteristic feature of science fiction is its performance of predictive-warning functions in culture (Westfahl, 2011, p. 64). Explication of philosophical ideas and problems of creativity, the Other, evil, and so on in science fiction contributed to its participation in the formation of the modern worldview in culture.
In general, modern science has penetrated so much into all areas of social life that it has become a decisive factor in the development of productive forces. Thanks to the accumulation of gigantic experience and colossal technical capabilities, science has risen to a new, qualitatively different level. The reflection of this in the minds of people determines, in particular, the interest in the science fiction genre of literature, the success of its development. Namely in science, a modern person, who has renounced religious ideas about the world, sees the only real support both for building a new, just society and “for the soul,” for understanding his place and meaning in life. However, probably, not all scientists and writers realize the whole immensity of the scientific experience accumulated by mankind, the whole breadth of the scientific research front, and the speed of their growth. In this infinitely diverse repository of mankind’s quests and reflections are the origins of absolutely all science fiction works, and a myriad of them are still waiting for their literary discoverers.
References
Cadigan, P. (1989). Patterns. Ursus Imprints.
Delany, S. R. (2002). Nova. Vintage.
Easton, L., & Schroeder, R. (2008). The influence of imagination: Essays on science fiction and fantasy as agents of social change. McFarland.
Miller, G. (2012). Exploring the limits of the human through science fiction. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stevenson, M. C. (2007). Trying to plug in: Posthuman cyborgs and the search for connection. Science Fiction Studies, 34(1), 87-105.
Tiptree, J. (1989). The girl who was plugged in. Tom Doherty Associates.
Westfahl, G. (2011). Science fiction and the prediction of the future: Essays on foresight and fallacy. McFarland.