Post # 2

If it’s one thing about the future that we know it is that we constantly think of it and imagine what will come from it. This reason alone speaks so strongly why science fiction spans so much literary territory.

All the authors we’ve read give a glimpse at a possible future. In each story we see what could be the end of humanity as we know it. Sometimes it’s the end of the world; sometimes it’s a switch from one reality to another. In each case there is some frightful truth to the world that comes to be.

In a way, technology is the device by which we expose our own frailties, and it eventually leads to our downfall. Each author we’ve read shows this. Clark shows that, thanks to the wonders of technology, we are able to do a job faster, more accurate, and more reliable than human minds could normally accomplish. We’re all using computers these days. 20 years ago it would have been science fiction to believe every household would hold a computer and that students could meet for class through an online network. Asimov and Atwood both show the advancement of humanity into the realm of a god-like creator, capable of remaking the idea of consciousness and life through the tool of technology. Robots are being developed to travel the surface of Mars, perform surgery, and aide the disabled. Genetic manipulation can help treat diseases and we are developing ways to grow body parts for surgery. All of these stories serve as a warning to what could be in possible hopes that they never come to be.