Finding philosophy in science fiction

Why do you read? Do you read to be simply entertained? Or are you looking for deeper intellectual stimulation? Literature has always been a refuge for ideas. But over the years, something has happened, especially with literary fiction. It’s no longer tackling profound ideas, instead, transforming into something very mundane.

An article I came across on Wired News discusses this very issue. Clive Thompson writes why Sci-Fi is becoming the last bastion of philosophical writing.

When I first started writing fiction (I don’t even remember how old I was), it was science fiction that got me excited. In fact, sci-fi novels were all I read. But I only had some vague semi-understanding of the issues these books tackled. I think, at that age, I was turned on more by the gory violence of alien wars than anything else.

Fast forward to the present. My minor in college was philosophy, where I fell in love with the existentialists. A few years ago, while still a college student, I returned back to my roots in science fiction. This time I have a greater appreciation of the philosophical issues sci-fi attempts to reconcile within its pages.

So what does this have to do with literary fiction? Well, according to Thompson, literary fiction is not living up to the standards it once set:

I think it’s because I was reading novel after novel about the real world. And there are, at the risk of sounding superweird, only so many ways to describe reality. After I’d read my 189th novel about someone living in a city, working in a basically realistic job and having a realistic relationship and a realistically fraught family, I was like, "OK. Cool. I see how today’s world works." I also started to feel like I’d been reading the same book over and over again.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love literary fiction. I love the "everydayness" much of the genre brings and I have sympathized with countless characters over the years. Many of the novels I find myself engrossed in the most are the ones that dive deep into the everyday lives of the characters.

But when I want intellectual stimulation on a deeper level, I turn to science fiction. Thompson explains why sci-fi can do what literary fiction is now failing at (maybe through no fault of its own):

Here’s my overly reductive, incredibly nerdy way of thinking about the novel: Consider it a simulation, kind of like The Sims. If you run a realistic simulation enough times — writing tens of thousands of novels about contemporary life — eventually you’re going to explore almost every outcome. So what do you do then?

As Thompson suggests, you change the very nature of reality itself:

You change the physics in the sim. Alter reality — and see what new results you get. Which is precisely what sci-fi does. Its authors rewrite one or two basic rules about society and then examine how humanity responds — so we can learn more about ourselves. How would love change if we lived to be 500? If you could travel back in time and revise decisions, would you? What if you could confront, talk to, or kill God?

Science fiction has always held up a metaphorical mirror to the world of the future. But I think sci-fi gets a lot of its "legitimacy" because what was science fiction yesterday is turning into reality today. Just think, how many people 50 years ago would have thought I could carry a small device in my pocket that would offer a wealth of information (the internet) at my fingertips, communicate with friends/family (email/text messaging), and stored a wealth of music? Of course, I’m talking about my iPhone.

Today, a lot of science fiction revolves around space travel and colonizing other planets. Also, humans in these imaginative worlds are usually living longer and have implants in their bodies to perform a host of cool functions – everything from instantly diagnosing an illness to talking to another person just by thinking about it. No, I’m not making this up. I’m actually taking ideas from a cool series of books I’m reading by Peter F. Hamilton, which begins with two books aptly named The Reality Dysfunction(aff link).

The implications of future technology can be amazing, and at the same time, very tragic. Science fiction explores these implications and offers a scary glimpse at ourselves living in a technologically advanced world. I say "scary" because technology can be a great blessing, but also a curse if used wrong or if it falls into the wrong hands (which it always does).

I’m in no way bashing literary fiction. On the contrary, it still ranks up there as one of my favorites. But I think the function of literary fiction is much different than science fiction. I think the former is used to illuminate the human condition on an individual level, while the latter aggregates the human condition on the level of an entire society and mixing in technology, science and philosophy all rolled into one. In other words, science fiction takes the human population, throws in an alternate reality, and then tries to discover what the outcome will be.

In closing, all I can say is that if the future is anything like the sci-fi being written today, then it will indeed be a very scary, and at the same time, exciting place to live.

Also, don’t forget to check out Clive Thompson’s blog Collision Detection.

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