The Science of Science Fiction: The Influence of Film and Fiction on the Science and Culture of Our Times

We are the first generation to live in a science fiction world.

Media headlines declare this the age of automation. The TV talks about the coming revolution of the robot, tweets tell tales of jets that will ferry travelers to the edge of space, and social media reports that the first human to live for a thousand years has already been born. The science we do, the movies we watch, and the culture we consume is the stuff of fiction that became fact, the future imagined in our past—the future we now inhabit.

The Science of Science Fiction is the story of how science fiction shaped our world. No longer a subculture, science fiction has moved into the mainstream with the advent of the information age it helped realize. Explore how science fiction has driven science, with topics that include:

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Is Space Full of Extraterrestrials?
• Jacking In: Will the Future Be Like Ready Player One?
• Mad Max: Is Society Running down into Chaos?
• The Internet: Will Humans Tire of Mere Reality?
• Blade Runner 2049: When Will We Engineer Human Lookalikes?
• And many more!

This book will open your eyes to the way science fiction helped us dream of things to come, forced us to explore the nature and limits of our own reality, and aided us in building the future we now inhabit.