Science fiction serves many purposes in society in many other ways than simply entertaining us in sci-fi movies like Star Wars and Blade Runner or in books like Neuromancer and 1984. Science fiction is especially important to society in helping us solve problems that occur in the real world, developing new modern technologies like those seen in William Gibson’s Neuromancer, and analyzing the rights and wrongs of different societies like those seen in “The Lottery.”
For one, science fiction helps us look at problems that may occur in the future and helps us produce solutions to those problems before it gets out of hand or even before they start. One good example of this is in the story “Harrison Bergeron.” In the story, people are controlled by handicaps that limit their abilities (such as thinking and talents) and individuality in an attempt at equality. This story is a perfect example of equality of outcome being used to control a society and how and why it fails eventually. All the people in Harrison Bergeon’s society are unhappy, ignorant, and unproductive. This is not how we want our society to function because we are wasting human potential just to horribly attempt to make everyone equal. Equality of opportunity would be a better way to approach equality as it ensures that everybody has an equal chance to succeed in society but still need to carry their own weight, why should people just be given a free pass to a good life and not work for it? As equality is a huge topic in real life, “Harrison Bergeron” highlighted how we do not want to approach it and showed us that equality is not always as great as it seems if not done correctly.
Another reason society needs the science fiction genre is because it helps us develop new modern technologies like robots and clones thanks to the help of the creative science fiction writers and inventors that dedicate their lives science. A good example of science fiction helping develop technologies is William Gibson’s Neuromancer. In Neuromancer, (written in 1984) Gibson predicts and possibly even gives some of the ideas to inventors for many kinds of technologies like virtual reality, cybernetics, artificial intelligence, and space travel. In the story, the main character Case uses a device called a deck and “jacks in” to the matrix (Virtual reality). Neuromancer also features a location called Freeside which orbits earth in space allowing space tourism and travel. The story also includes many robots and cyborgs (people with machines or additional parts) and is heavy on the topic of cybernetics and AI. These technologies did not exist back then apart from space travel but even that was still very new. Neuromancer helped these technologies advance and proves again why science fiction is important to society.
The final reason society needs the science fiction genre is because it helps us analyze the rights and wrongs of different societies so we can adapt or avoid them. A good example of this is in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. In the story, the people who live in a small village participate in a yearly ritual where they sacrifice a randomly selected member of the village to get a better harvest. Even though the sacrifice has no effect on the growth of the crop, the village keeps their traditions and continues to do the sacrifice. In our society, it would be completely unacceptable to sacrifice a member of society to increase crop growth because our science has evolved to a point where we know what affects crop growth whereas the society of “The Lottery” has not. The village gangs up on the sacrifice in a sort of gang mentality as they all are ok with it and do not seem to care about murdering an innocent person. This story shows how we can analyze the rights and wrongs of these societies.
In conclusion, society needs science fiction to help us progress and make sure that we run an equal, productive, and happy society so that we can make the best of our species while we are still standing. Humans create so many problems that it does not hurt to have the creativity of science fiction writers to keep us entertained and quite possibly save us from our demise. Science fiction is a major benefit to society and will be a big part of the future, it should be credited to getting us to where we are today and will continue to help us progress humanity. With Global warming and many other problems arising (science says we have until 2047 to reverse our pollution or it is too late.), now is a better time than ever to take advantage of science fiction and should be used for better.