Sci-Fi Argumentative Analysis

Many are coming to believe that science fiction is helping progress technology in real life. The reason this is true, I think, is because what sci-fi means to people has changed from being solely entertainment and into something more. It’s not just because the worlds that sci-fi depict deals with technology itself that’s aiding in this progression, but rather it’s because of how we now discuss and think about sci-fi that has resulted in this change. Discussion and how we often speak about science fiction is what’s causing real change and progress. Science fiction invites it’s viewers to discuss and form perspectives on its worlds and ideas, which is awesome, but I feel we may be thinking too hard on the idea that it’s the pieces themselves

One of the authors I briefly mentioned earlier, the author of the essay titled Innovation Starvation, Neal Stephenson, a novelist and former game designer, touches on this topic a small bit in his paper. “Broadly speaking,” he says, “the techno-optimism of the Golden Age of SF [sci-fi] has given way to fiction written in a generally darker, more skeptical and ambiguous tone,” and adds, “believing we have all the technology we’ll ever need, we seek to draw attention to its destructive side effects”. It’s a contemporary issue I guess, with this feeling like the technologies we have are normal or good enough, that all the rest would threaten to destroy our very ways of life, but that isn’t really the point. Moral issues have almost always plagued many of the somewhat more outlandish, but still possibly beneficial technological aspects of science fiction. Maybe you read or watch some sci-fi thing and suddenly feel a bit more wary about the new technologies coming out due to the dark, skeptical, and ambiguous tones as Stephenson brings up. This kind of techno-anxiety is one thing, but I actually consider this the most minor part of the problem. It isn’t these moral problems or concerns, but instead the overflow of inspiring ideas presented in science fiction that is slowing or more

Out of all of our previous readings, based on his essay Physics of the Impossible, he seemed the most enthusiastic about the fantastical and unrealistic aspects of science fiction: “being pulled into orbit of these fantastic inventions I knew that my own destiny was somehow wrapped up with the marvels of the science the show [Flash Gordon] promised,” he said in his essay, while recounting his childhood amazement and love of the Flash Gordon TV series. It’s this feeling of self-involvement, that has made science fiction more than just a facet of artistic expression. This kind of dreamer way of thinking has caused science fiction to mean more and possible influence our real-life, however sci-fi is also responsible for making us feel like we should be somewhere we may never get to. Sci-fi doesn’t simply inspire people, it also creates desire in people. A desire that may never actually be satisfied due to science fiction’s depictions of often today 's “impossibles”. This is by no means a bad thing thought.

This desire will strengthen those inspired and actually compelled to create because of science fiction. Really what I’m getting at, rather than arguing that technological advancement may feel slower because of science fiction, is simply acknowledging that perhaps