The Politics of Our AI Overlords
Fears of AI often focus on domination by algorithm-powered capitalism, but science fiction once used societies ruled by computers as analogs for communism.
An Age of Fantasy Politics
Tropes from science fiction and fantasy have become fodder for political rhetoric and action on all sides in the twenty-first century.
Pulp Woman: Leslie F. Stone
Cloaked in an ambiguous pseudonym, Stone was one of the first women to write science fiction for the pulps.
What’s so Chinese About Science Fiction from China?
Commentators have latched onto science fiction to explain all manner of social phenomena in China, from unemployment and the economy to air pollution.
Writing Online Fiction in China
Many amateur “fan fiction” writers on the Chinese internet use real history as a canvas for time-travel stories that often break the fourth wall.
Going “Black to the Future”
How has Afrofuturism supported the imagining of other worlds in the face of the anthropogenic climate crisis?
Chinese Science Fiction Before The Three Body Problem
Viewing the genre as a means to spread modern knowledge, Chinese novelists have been writing science-fiction stories since at least 1902.
Ode to Samuel Delany
Composed half-a-century ago, The Ballad of Beta-2 was a science-fiction vision of the future that speaks directly to our present.
The Ecological Prescience of Dune
Frank Herbert’s novel isn't just about space messiahs, giant sandworms, and trippy space drugs. At its core, the sci-fi epic is about ecology.