Science fiction : a guide for the perplexed / Sherryl Vint.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vint, Sherryl, 1969- author.

Series:

MIT Press essential knowledge series.

MIT Press essential knowledge series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Science fiction--History and criticism.

Science fiction.

Science fiction--Social aspects.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (226 pages) : illustrations.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2021]

Summary:

How science fiction has been a tool for understanding and living through rapid technological change. The world today seems to be slipping into a science fiction future. We have phones that speak to us, cars that drive themselves, and connected devices that communicate with each other in languages we don't understand. Depending the news of the day, we inhabit either a technological utopia or Brave New World nightmare. This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge surveys the uses of science fiction. It focuses on what is at the core of all definitions of science fiction: a vision of the world made otherwise and what possibilities might flow from such otherness.-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Whose science fiction

The utopian tradition

Futurology and speculative design

The colonial imagination

Robots, AI and transhumanism

Genomics, the microbion and posthumanism

Environment, climate change, and the anthropocene

Economics and financialization

Conclusion: Living in a science fictional world

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780262361965 (electronic book)

0-262-36196-5