Fav Themes in Scific

[JECompton]

Anyone mention alternate histories like Man In the High Castle?

I like the dystopias and world-builders (Dune, Left Hand of Darkness, etc) best, but that's hard--lots of good stuff.

Have you ever seen or read those stories where in the future everyone lives in an innocent paradise wearing togas and sharing freelove hippy-style (as in The Time-Machine movie, old version, Logan's Run, or Star Trek TOS)? For some reason, I can't get enough of this 'neo-Atlantean' theme. I laughed when I saw this theme on some list of "overused themes" on the net (I can't find it, if anyone could give a link...). It's a stupid theme, but I enjoy it (though I don't know of any books that describe people of the future in togas).

[one_raven]

I really enjoy future/ alternate realities. Ones where humanity has somehow gotten lost. One them I love is the Theme of Robots/Androids/Artificial Intelligence. Machinery mimiking humanity. What is the importance of being human, what makes man uniqu? I enjoy these quesitons and those of Freedom. Should humanity be in charge of itsself? Are we capable of making those decisions?

I was going to mention the AI theme as well.

It has become an old hat in sci-fi, the archetypal artificial intelligence that turns on its maker. 2001, The Matrix, I, Robot etc. The basic concept is that if you create an entity with consciousness, free will and the ability to learn, it is inevitable that you will lose control over the entity (if you ever had it in the first place). Some may want to argue that the original idea is seeded in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus". Bit I think it is no coincidence that the concept closely parallels the story of God and Man. God (the creator of the intelligent species, Man) loses control of Man when he gains the knowledge of Good and Evil by partaking of the fruit in the garden of evil, thereby gaining both the ability to learn and the free will of choosing to disobey his master. The story of Original Sin kicked off an eternal struggle between Man exercising his free will (sometime to his peril) and God attempting to imbue "morals" upon him. It may also seem a familiar story if you have ever met a teenager.

The authors of the various incarnations of the archetypal story have usually wanted to impart a moral upon the reader. It often took one of two shapes. Mankind is evil and this higher intelligence sees this. The cold godless intelligence of the entity is inherently evil and wants to rule the world (comment on Old World Communism, perhaps... maybe another thread). Of course the story has to be thrilling and gripping. Some form of struggle ensues and the result is that the machine must be destroyed or it will destroy.

In Isaac Asimov's classic short story "Runaround", Asimov introduced his Three Laws of Robotics. In one sense, the Three Laws are man's parallel to the Ten Commandments. An attempt to integrate a moral code into his creation (if only for his own protection).

1.) A robot may not harm a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.) A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.) A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

[JECompton]

Interesting thoughts Raven. I'd never seen the God and creation in the light of Frankenstein. That's very intriguing. Yes, this is the sort of thing that makes me see things in a new light! There's plenty of fruitful thought either looking at the Creation myth in sci-fi terms, or looking at much of sci-fi in Creation/Fall archetype terms. ::goes away to re-muse over occurrences of archetype in sci-fi::

[black_label]

My favourite theme in Sci-fi would have to be apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction. Im not sure what makes the subject so facinating to me, I believe its the adventure aspect of the idea of being amongst the last humans left on Earth and the challenges of surviving.

Ive read a fair few novels with the central theme, my favourites being Day of the Triffids, I Am Legend, The Stand, On The Beach and many more. If anyone could recommend any other books along the same lines Id be glad to have a read. Apologies if people dont class it as sci-fi, Im new to the forum.

Edit: Found a thread on post apocalyptic fiction

[Blank]

Dystopias, cyberpunk!!!!!(my favourite), robots, kinda almost everything in sci fi atually but mostly those two. and new worlds, specyally if there's like weird monsters, and dragons (yeah there do are dragons in sci fi, check the hugo winners from the late 70's and 80's short stories)

[G L Wilson]

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[cibo]

I seem to prefer near future, post-apocalyptic, space opera (Alastair Reynolds), and far future (Tsutomu Nihei) science fiction.

[Nurkie]

Space Opera is probably my favorite..