and you know why?
because it gives us a window into who we might be. you can tell a story about things that actually do happen in any genre of fiction. most so-called great literature is about things that could happen, or could have happened in the past. and that can be compelling and good and important.
but to understand the human condition beyond the context of the world we actually do live in? to get a glimpse into how we might change, fundamentally, in the future? you gotta read sci-fi.
and sci-fi is a pretty big genre. even if you don’t think you like sci-fi, one of your favourite works of media is probably sci-fi. a lot of people think that sci-fi is defined by the technological elements that go into it. is there a spaceship? robots? aliens? do the guns go ‘pew pew’? it’s probably sci-fi, goes the line of thinking.
but that’s an aesthetic. and sci-fi isn’t an aesthetic. sci-fi is an element of theme. it’s an ethos in storytelling. and it’s super easy to sum up:
sci-fi is when we imagine the human condition changing because of social or technological development.
that’s it. that’s the genre. pack it up everyone.
but you probably noticed something about that definition. it’s way too broad, right? doesn’t it mean Harry Potter is sci-fi because it’s largely about the ramifications of magic being real?
or maybe you noticed that it’s kind of vague. what do you mean, ‘sci-fi is when we imagine the human condition changing?’ how far do we have to imagine? whose human condition?
buckle up, cause i’m about to call some shit sci-fi that’s going to make people upset.
for instance, works of media that are fundamentally about magic or other technology that’s impossible are absolutely sci-fi, if and only if they interrogate the human condition. Harry Potter isn’t about the implications on the human condition of magic being real. magic isn’t well explained, none of the lore makes sense, the bad guys are just garden variety fascists, and the main setting is obviously just a British boarding school with a magical coat of paint. people live fundamentally pretty similar lives with or without magic. heck, they even have office jobs! the few times the book series examines the differences in wizard and non-wizard existence, it’s played as a joke. it’s not interested in asking questions about how people might live differently.
you know what is sci-fi, though? Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and i’m not kidding. the entire series is about the implications of a world where monsters threaten humanity and little girls have to sacrifice their futures to fight them. it’s about what that would mean, psychologically, for people put in that situation. it’s about how that responsibility, that cosmic burden, changes people’s lives for the worse; it’s about how normal conceptions of morality break down when you’re confronted by the inevitability of death.
and all that is because it’s about middle schoolers turning into sparkly heroines to fight evil. none of its themes would work without its speculative elements. the reason that Madoka is sci-fi is because the character arcs, the challenges those characters face, do not work without the magic. the story is about exploring the changes the magic brings. it’s about what does, and doesn’t, match our old assumptions about the world under this new paradigm.
let’s check out some examples. Patlabor, the movie, is sci-fi because the plot, themes and character arcs are totally nonsensical without its core speculative element: the social and technological change that comes from Japan’s increased reliance on Labors, construction mecha that are changing the face of the country. they aren’t real, and they’ve altered society in a way that wasn’t real yet when the movie was made, and the story’s about what might happen if and when those changes occur! that’s sci-fi!
Patlabor 2, the movie, isn’t sci-fi! nothing about its core political drama, or the core character conflicts (what does it mean to keep the peace in a world of exploitation and greed? is the society we protect tenable, or is its stability an illusion?) would change AT ALL if it wasn’t about cops who pilot cool robots around. the robots don’t matter; take out all the tech, and it’s just a story about 90s Japan. that’s not sci-fi!
every single piece of superhero media is sci-fi! they’re all about people with extraordinary individual power, and the implications of that power for them, their personal human condition, and the society that they live in. do they power-trip? defend the weak? does their very existence warp the culture they live in around them? the power isn’t real, but it could be. when we explore its implications, we explore a potential future in which people like this do exist, for some undiscovered reason. that’s sci-fi!
Star Wars isn’t sci-fi! okay, the Jedi stuff where they’re grappling with the implications of a demonstrably real higher power sometimes is, but mostly, it’s not. the stories that get told in that universe aren’t about the changes to society that result from interstellar civilization. the aliens are stand-ins who pretty much act human. the robots do menial tasks and sometimes, when it’s funny or serves pathos, exhibit emotions, but this is never explored like they were real people. the space weapons get used to fight conflicts whose context and goals are easy to understand from a modern-day viewpoint. the Force is a narrative device to justify why protagonists are special in such a grand, sweeping space-opera context. none of these elements’ impacts on the human condition are explored in depth! that’s not sci-fi!
if i made any star wars nerds upset with that characterization, let it be known that Star Wars: The Acolyte, the High Republic YA novels, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II are all sci-fi because they interrogate the way the Force and the (super weird and alien) practices of the Jedi alter the human condition. peace? peace.
so why does this make sci-fi “the best genre”? that’s a pretty big claim. here’s why i’ll always believe it.
because sci-fi imagines the human condition changing, it allows us to step outside our normal preconceptions of what it means to be human. it allows us to step outside our normal cultural and social contexts, too, and imagine alternatives.
by doing this, it warns us of evil that might happen if we use technological or social developments the wrong way. it also lets us imagine better worlds that could come about if we use them the right way. in short, sci-fi is a moral tool. it helps us choose the futures we want, and avoid the futures we don’t.
by doing this, it allows us to imagine radically different modes of being, before they become real; it allows us to better understand and accept things that are foreign to us. that’s useful if we ever meet aliens, but it’s also useful if AI ever demands rights. and it’s useful if we ever meet someone with a different worldview from our own, whose experience of the human condition is different because of a context you haven’t seen firsthand.
and it’s useful if we ever meet someone who’s using new technology or society to live. someone who’s trans and lives off synthetic hormones, or lives in the context of a different paradigm of gender than you’re used to. someone who’s disabled and uses technology to extend their capabilities. someone who gets most of their social interaction from the internet.
if you don’t practice understanding new things, if you don’t practice empathy, if you don’t practice mentally adapting to a changing world, you will not have those powers when reality requires them.
so go consume some sci-fi media. good news is, there’s more of it than you might think.
red-headed android 