LBAT 2414U – Science Fiction and Society

Science fiction has long been a globally popular genre of speculative art and media that imagines and probes a wide range of possible future societies that are designed or disrupted by scientific and technological innovations. Frequently, science fiction novels, movies, TV series and interactive games project utopian fantasies of a better future or relay dystopian nightmares of a society totally transformed for the worse. Even though science fiction is speculative and future-oriented, it regularly gives expression to the hopes and fears about the roles and impacts of scientific and technological innovation in the real world, in present-day societies, and as related to pressing social problems. This course introduces students to the study of science fiction in society, and explores how works of science fiction imagines science and technology as related to a wide range of possible futures, from the utopian to the dystopian. By reading, watching, interacting with, interpreting, discussing, analyzing popular science fiction, students will learn about a wide range of new and emerging techno-social problems and dilemmas in the real world. Science fiction themes of space, time, war and peace, social power, inequality, environment, AI, robots, alternate reality, aging, augmented bodies, biotechnology, nanotechnology and more may be explored.
Credit hours: 3.0
Lecture hours: 3.0
Recommended: SSCI 1210U,SSCI 1470U