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- Alien: Alien is a word that has long been used to refer to something foreign, but when did it become the go-to term for a being from another planet?
- Android: Long before the invention of the word "robot," humans dreamed of mechanical beings. Clockwork artisans would construct all manner of automata—birds that flap their wings, monks that shuffle in silent prayer, dolls that pretend to serve tea or play the dulcimer.
- Ansible: Ursula K. Le Guin coined this word for a device for instantaneous communication across the vast distances of space in her 1966 novel Rocannon's World.
- Beam: While the word "beam" evokes visions of Captain Kirk saying, "Beam me up, Scotty," beam already refers to the transport of matter in the "Matter Transmitter" entry in the 1951 Dictionary of Science Fiction.
A threat of an apocalypse does not make a piece of fiction apocalyptic. For example, Armageddon and Deep Impact are considered disaster films and not apocalyptic fiction because, although Earth or humankind are terribly threatened, in the end they manage to avoid destruction.
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to SF or sci-fi) is a genre of speculative fiction, which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life. It often explores human responses to changes in science and technology.
- Advanced Technology. Often, science fiction universes have technologies that are beyond what humans are capable of doing at the present, such as the iPad-like devices used in mid-nighties science fiction shows.
- AI Artificial Intelligence. These are human-created intelligent beings that live in a virtual environment such as on a computer. Hal from 2001 is iconic in this regard.
- Alien. A creature not from Earth. Or at least not from where your protagonist is from. Writing TIP: Aliens that look and act human are easy to relate to.
- Android from the Greek meaning like a human. These are artificial life forms that are constructed to resemble a human and act like one. They can be made from any material even organic material like flesh.
- Alien Species/Worlds
- Humanity
- Novums
- SF “Laws”
- Some Subgenres
- General Themes and Concepts
Alien Invasion: Beings from space come to Earth to conquer. See also: TV Tropes.BEM: Abbreviation for bug-eyed monster, or an extra-terrestrial monster with bulging eyes. See also: SFE.First Contact: The first meeting between two different intelligent species. See also: TV Tropes. SFE.Eugenics: The modification and concentration of supposedly desirable human traits (and eliminations of supposedly undesirable ones) by selective breeding programs and/or the sterilization of the “u...First Man / Last Man: Narratives in which we see the beginning of a new human race, or the end of the human race. TV Tropes.Ansible: An instantaneous communication device, not limited by the speed of light. See also: TV Tropes. SFE.Babel Fish: A living fish which, when placed in your ear, will live there and translate any form of language for you. See also: TV Tropes.Cryogenics: The science of low temperatures (originally the science of creating low temperatures). See also: TV Tropes. SFE.Arthur C. Clarke’s Laws: 1) When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very proba...Afrofuturism: A form of science fiction that uses Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Magic Realism to examine black culture. See also: TV Tropes.Alternate History/Alt-History: A subgenre of science fiction wherein at least one aspect of history is different from that of our own world; the setting of such stories. See also: TV Tropes. SFE.Anime: a Japanese animated film or television program, drawn in a meticulously detailed style, usually featuring characters with distinctive large, staring eyes, and typically having a science-fict...Area 51: A United States Air Force base in Nevada, the existence of which was not formally acknowledged by the US Government until 1995. See also: TV Tropes.Oct 9, 2020 · Techne is empirical in the sense that science fiction refers to the experience of the existence of an empirically based world, and the survey of science fiction readers finds clear and practical categories that separate science fiction from fantasy literature.
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Jan 26, 2021 · Ditto for “transporter,” “moon base” and “deep space,” to name just a few of the more than 400 words whose origins are getting pushed back earlier than their previously first appearance, thanks...
