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Science Fiction concepts

Science fiction has a number of common concepts and themes that have been reused by numerous authors. Some have become cliches, and only truly novel treatments of them gain attention, whilst others have become "part of the furniture"—they can be included in a story without much explanation because readers are already familiar with the core concept.

In alphabetical order:

Aliens (see Aliens in fiction)
- Alien invasion
- Benevolent aliens
- First contact
  - Principles of non-interference (e.g. Prime Directive)
- Xenobiology
Androids
- Cyborgs and Cybernetics
- Robots
Apocalypses or world wide disasters
- See also Post-apocalyptic science fiction
Arcologies
Artificial intelligence
Clones
Colonisation
- Terraforming
Cosmology
- Creation of the Universe
- Ultimate fate of the Universe
- Omega Point
Cryonics
Cyberpunk
- Steampunk
Ecology
- Science Fiction is used to raise awareness of Ecological ideas. Lends itself well to dystopian futures. Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson are known for their serious concern with ecological issues.
Economics
- Post-"Age of Scarcity" (arguments over how to distribute resources are irrelevant since anyone can have anything they reasonably want, e.g. The Culture, and the problems of excessive wealth as in Frederik Pohl's The Midas Plague)
Fantasy fiction
Galactic Empire
History
- Alternate history
- History repeating itself (either on long or short scales)
- Scientific prediction of the future (e.g. Psychohistory)
- Secret history
Horror fiction
Interstellar travel
- Faster than Light
- Very nearly light speed
  - Ursula LeGuin's NAFAL ships, and the Twin paradox
- Much slower than Light
  - Generation ship
  - Sleeper ship
- Moving planets
Language
- Alien languages (e.g. Klingon)
- All humans speaking one language (possibly Esperanto)
- Current human languages evolving/splitting
- The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis being strongly true (e.g. Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delany or The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance)
- Universal Translators (e.g. Babelfish)
Military - strategy, weapons, ranks, technologies.
- Ray guns
- Space warfare
Mind
- Artificial intelligence
- Beings of pure mentality
- Hive minds
- Memory removal/editing
- Mind control
- Mind uploading
- Neural implants and interfacing with machinery (directly)
- Solipsism
Mutants
Parallel worlds or universes.
Planets in Science Fiction
Politics
- Dystopias and (supposed) utopias
- Galactic Empire
- Interstellar federation of planets
- Totalitarianism vs. Libertarianism
- World government
- Workable anarchism
Post-apocalyptic science fiction and new societies that develop after the event
- There is a space based civilization variant of this theme. This plot device allows writers to write Soft Science Fiction while accounting for the lack of technological advancement and thus similarity to the present day.
Posthumanism
- Enhancement of the organism
  - Body modification, including genetic modification
  - Cyborgs
Psi powers
- Clairvoyance
- Telepathy
- Telekinesis
Sex (including gender roles, sexuality and procreation)
Shapeshifting
Simulated reality
Sociology and sociobiology
- return to feudalism
- hive-like eusocial societies
- future caste systems
Superhumans
Technology and its side effects
- Nanotechnology
- Singularity
Telepathy
Teleportation
Time travel
- Anachronism
- The Grandfather paradox -- e.g. Can someone go back in time and kill his parents before they beget the killer?
Uplift
Virtual reality

External Links

http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/scifi.html
http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml
http://www.itsf.org/resources/keywords.php
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~main/sfthemes.html

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Science Fiction concepts".