What Can We Learn from Sci-Fi Novels?

Stories of science fiction range from the outlandish and imaginary to the concrete and believable. Across this spectrum, you will find stories for just about anyone. There are stories with worlds built from scratch, providing a rich exit from the world in which we live. And there are stories grounded in modern day science that sharply engage readers, leaving them purposely uncertain of where plausibility ends and fiction begins.

Science is intricate to our lives, including our daily activities. Is there anything in which we can engage that cannot be explained by science? We may think there is but it’s likely because we just have not heard the pertinent concepts and theories. The gap between the ideas in scientific journals, university research projects, etc. and the everyday person is often too far. My undergrad is in physics, but I’m still confounded as I read an article on dark matter or black holes, let alone an article on a subject I never studied.

Hard sci-fi novels (those that are “less fiction”) distill these complicated topics into reachable stories, metaphorical characters, and rich themes. In doing so, we can bridge these gaps, or at least improve our perspective, to the concepts and theories at the core. The use of analogies is key to getting an audience to effectively understand complex topics. A good sci-fi novel makes use of this method, leaving the reader with an entertaining story that lingers on through a slightly better understanding of how and why our world (and universe) behaves the way it does.