Abstract
Science fiction is an important source for probing the interactions of science, technology, and society.1 First, it is a laboratory of the imagination, offering the author a framework for carrying out a series of thought-experiments on the consequences of current or foreseeable trends and events. Science fiction does not so much make predictions as ask “what if” something should come to pass, with a range of answers bound only by the author’s literary skill, imagination, and assumptions about human nature and social evolution. Though not usually written for didactic purposes, science fiction stories may be powerful heuristic models. As entertainment, they induce an empathetic response in readers provoked to consider the array of options open to humanity reflected in the plots of particularly compelling tales.
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Livingston, D. (1981). The Biology of Utopia. In: Holmes, H.B., Hoskins, B.B., Gross, M. (eds) The Custom-Made Child?. Contemporary Issues in Biomedicine, Ethics, and Society. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6007-3_42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-6007-3_42
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-025-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-6007-3
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