Thank God for Science Fiction

How we’ve unknowingly spent our lives preparing for AI discourse

Three excellent books in a profoundly misunderstood genre. Image: Philip Harker

The side of the social internet that discusses books and literature — Goodreads, r/books, and most recently BookTok — has been an incredible and valuable forum for readers and authors alike. But the book community has a long and proud history of casting shade on “genre fiction”. For many self-styled book gurus, there is and has always been a certain kind of fiction that is low-brow and not Real Literature™. Genres such as fantasy, YA romance, and horror are often marketed towards a wide audience; as with many aspects of culture, it’s hip to spit on what the masses enjoy. After all, how could a book full of swords and orcs possibly engage intellectually with an educated reader’s astute and refined mind? (Hint: extremely effectively).

Science fiction is one such genre that is often perceived as less-sophisticated. Sci-fi has always had its detractors, and it’s hard to deny that there’s plenty of junk out there that doesn’t add much to the genre. But there is a unique aspect to science fiction that other genres lack — sci-fi authors have a freedom to explore and speculate on the future.

Certainly authors in other genres speculate all the time. “Speculative fiction” as a concept describes a myriad of categories. But there is something…