Science Fiction

…. dramatically enough, a ‘Saga’ of Humans

Science fiction was formed with the intentions of selling quick, over-the-top pulp magazines, and with time it has found a place in society as a genre that raises the questions that do not get asked. The use of surrealism shakes the boundaries of the viewer’s material world and encapsulates them in a story that wholly redefines what it means to be human. It is a story of people that will more often, than not, rekindle a bond of coexistence in a world where the audiences find themselves distanced and alone, now more than ever. It could be a heart-warming comedy, a love story, a grotesque horror, or an odyssey; in most stylistic themes, abstraction of reality to stimulate the viewer’s awareness will bring the characters of a text closer to their human element.

A warped physical world can be the medium to reveal the true dynamic of the central characters of the story, and with the correct implementation, abstraction can reveal the intricacies of human relationships. The Community episode, Remedial Chaos Theory was highly celebrated episode that brought more meaning to the dynamic of the characters, than any other episode had ever done before. It was a mathematical analysis of all the permutations of how a group of friends interacts within itself with one pillar missing. As boringly analytical as the explanation sounds, the episode itself was a story of humans that was told through the progression of space through alternate realms. Community is a show that follows lovable misfits in a whimsical community college, but it is the brief moments where the show broke away from the traditions of genre and played with the universal forces, that truly manifested the characters into humans and transformed the story into poetry of compassion and friendship. The usage of parallel universes to show how the absence of each group member would warp the communication amongst the others, was an obvious application of what constitutes as science fiction, but it is ultimately the resulting connection of the characters that defines the importance of the genre of science fiction.

Science fiction doesn’t require an action sequence that pins a human being against an alien, as much as the science fiction story needs the bending of the physical world to showcase the phenomena that is the throbbing consciousness made up of every human mind that ever existed. In the 2012 science fiction epic, Cloud Atlas, when Sonmi realizes her sentient worth, she says, “To be is to be perceived. And so, to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds that go on apportioning themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own; from womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness we birth our future.” The movie in itself acts as a depiction of this statement; every individual in every story of the film has been affected by every other individual and aside from the small world around them, most of the consequences that they live as the result of each other’s lives is unbeknownst to them. It is the story of every person, not in a relatable way, but it is a story that depicts the history of humankind and the codependency of humans on their ancestors and successors. The surreal time leaps connect the characters through their emotional states rather than their chronological existence. The futuristic and technologically grand settings are humbled by the characters’ requirement of each other when faced with the unknown, and this human connection validates the worth in engaging in the science fiction genre.

Often, science fictional text will plunge its characters into a bizarre oblivion to challenge the bounds of sanity; it serves to further secure the comfort of the concrete world. In Ex Machina, when Caleb insists that Nathan programmed Ava to flirt with him, Nathan replies, “Of course you were programmed, by nature or nurture or both and …. this is your insecurity talking, this is not your intellect.” Caleb has worked as a programmer, and possesses enough merit to shadow Nathan on his research in artificial intelligence, but he loses his bearings when he is met with the possibility of being succumbed into this technology that is so humanlike, it has lost meaning as technology and now remains rather undefined for him. Something that ought not to resemble humans, is not only succeeding, but it seems superior to Caleb, and it is the prospect of being erased away by these creations that can infiltrate humanity without so much as a trace, that trembles his capability to tell truth from illusion. The projection of the subtle brink of humanity, will incite the questions of not where people went wrong or what their innates flaws were, but rather where will people go wrong to have their own creations challenge them and then end them.

However, going forward, with the integration of technology and digital communication in daily life, it will become of even greater importance to expand the genres of science fiction into surreal texts that invoke the humanness of the viewer. In Intimate Communication on the Internet, Krotz talks about communication with artificial persons, and the reader is reminded that as conceptual as communication with artificial persons sounds, this has been the reality for the past few decades as kids have grown up with Tamagotchi’s, robotic toys, and chatbots. As the culture of people is changing so should the meaning that defines science fiction. Science fiction is no longer a traditional sect of stories, but a stylistic theme that can be paired with a more centralized genre like drama or romance. In the 2013 movie, HER, the audience is told the love story of a man and an AI system, as he finds his solace in the communication with a computer program. Technology is exponentially evolving, and with-it science fiction evolves too; with each evolution it brings less elements of surprise and more instances of compassion and rich understanding of the human psyche.

Once the evoker of a sense of wonderment and excitement, the genre of science fiction has grown to question and philosophize life as it observes. To say the least, science fiction tells the story of human beings, their connections with each other, their lasting impact on each other and it asks of its viewer to question the meaning of their own actions. Whether it is the time-leaping epic that metaphorizes the existence of humans, a Frankenstein-like horror that draws attention to the uncertainty of our own actions, a feel-good script that comedically jumps through universes to justify the worth of every being, or the prospect intimate friendship with a fragment of binary code; what remains is that through challenging the normal (or at least what has been considered normal up to now) science fiction is the mirror for humanity. Gone are the days, when science fiction was limited to the occasional alien attack on New York City that vowed to wipe out humans and then proceeded to destroy the statue of liberty….