Evolution of Science Fiction

I would like to talk about the evolution of science fiction into what is becoming to be known as speculative fiction. Because let us face it, the whole concept of science fiction is changing.  Long gone are the days where we can get away with writing that humanoid-like sentients live on Mars and anywhere else in our solar system.  Science fact had proved that the only life we know of may be fossilised algea on the red planet, and one of these days we'll learn what's in Europa.  Technology has improved over the years, even if government interest in space exploration has waned.  That isn't true with private enterprise.  But I digress.

It can be argued that science and technology has finally caught up with science fiction, especially around computers and robotics.  That and most people have become more aware.  For me, I think that science fiction is splitting into two categories; science fantasy and speculative fiction.  Movies like Star Wars and Planets of the Apes, Star Gate and even Battlestar Galactica and good old Star Trek (not to mention such computer games as Halo and Mass Effect) are scientific fantasies where warp speed is the norm alongside having sex with exotic aliens and halfbreeds.  Others, like Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers and games likes Binary Domain, and anything dreamed up by Tom Clancy and his peeps as speculative.

But what is speculative fiction?

It is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts.

The term has been used to express dissatisfaction with what some people consider the limitations of science fiction, or otherwise to designate fiction that falls under readily stereotypical genres so that it can be pigeonholed within such categorical limits as "fantasy" or "mystery".

The new movie Lockdown is speculative.

Not only is this a pretty cool movie, incorporating action and showing Guy Pearce's talent in spades, it is also within the speculative genre due to being set in the near future.  For me it's in the same league as Minority Report and Bicentennial Man; both good movies. All three movies, and some games (such as my fave currently, the entire Call of Duty series) try to theorise how the future it may be. 

Is our future going to be a dystopia, or more a utopia?

Or is everything going to end on the 21st December of 2012 and the future is mute?

As a writer, even one who has currently opted to go independent, I like to think my fiction is speculative in nature.  Are we going to go down the road of a global government, or are we going to be fractured?  Are we going to colonise the Moon and Mars, and eventually move outwards to Europa and onwards to Alpha Centauri, or are we going to go and settle the seas like in seaQuest?

Of course, to find out go to here.