Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, which normally deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts, such as advanced science and technology. It was a popular literary genre in several periods of the 20th century.
The 1930s-1940s: This golden age period of science fiction is generally considered to have been from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s – a time when many fundamental works of science fiction literature were published.
The 1950s: The end of World War II and technological developments in space exploration and nuclear energy helped make science fiction popular. Japanese films, like “Godzilla” (1954), contributed to the popularity of science fiction in literature.
The 1960s–1970s: Science fiction became exceedingly popular in film and on television. Some notable films from this period included: “Fahrenheit 451” (1966), “A Space Odyssey” (1968), and “Charly” (1968). The new-wave style of science fiction was also popular during this time, emphasizing the social and psychological sciences over the physical sciences.
The most prominent, and my favorite, science fiction writers who represent last two periods of the 1950s and the 1960s-1970s are:
— Ivan Yefremov (1908-1972) was a Soviet paleontologist, archaeologist and science-fiction author. He founded taphonomy – the study of how organisms’ decay and become fossilized or preserved in the paleontological record. His most controversial and popular science fiction book is “The Hour of the Bull” (1968).
— Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006) was a Polish writer and widely translated into Russian language. He authored many novels, short stories and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fiction stories are of satirical and humorous character.
— Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the “Big Three” science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke.
Nevertheless, it was Karel Čapek (1890-1938) of the Golden Age of Science Fiction period of the 1930s-1940s, who had pioneered and set a tone for this creative literary genre. Čapek was a Czech writer and playwright – one of the most influential and prolific Czech writers of the 20th century. In addition to his first popular fiction “R.U.R.” (1920), he also wrote “The Outlaw” (1920), “Pictures from the Insects’ Life” (1921), “The Makropulos Affair” (1922), “Adam the Creator” (1927), “War with the Newts” (1936) and “The White Disease” (1937).
Today’s development and attempts to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to our daily life and, subsequently, to replace human labor is somewhat a blueprint of Čapek’s 1920s play R.U.R.
In “R.U.R.” Čapek introduced the word “robot” to the English vocabulary; originally the word was derived from the Russian word “rabota,” or work (noun). He also wrote many politically charged works dealing with the social turmoil of his time, strongly opposing the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe.
“R.U.R.” is set in a factory that produces artificial workers — “robots”— from synthetic organic matter. Robots physically resemble humans but lack original thoughts, emotions and consciousness. Humans create them to perform physical labor and eliminate hardship for humanity. Eventually, robots organized themselves, rebelled against humans and managed to kill most of them on Earth. Subsequently, the robots were unable to reproduce, because humans possessed a secret formula for their skin production.
The play is a social commentary on the dangers of humans thinking too naively and ignoring the consequences of their unwise actions. It also explores the idea that robots are viewed as unliving things, rather than people.
The play was an enormous success in Europe and North America and, eventually, it was translated into over 30 major languages by 1923. It inspired many other creative works, including Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics” – a set of guidelines for how robots should ideally behave in human society.
In his play, Čapek attempted to convey to readers that human consciousness is the state of being aware of oneself and the world around them, including thoughts, memories, feelings, emotions, sensations and environments. It is a subjective experience that is unique to each person and unique only to humans.
Historically, only humans among all other living creatures and species on the Planet Earth created complex social institutions, sophisticated technology, political parties, mythology, creative literature and art, major world religions, theological teachings, and the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments, to name a few.
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Consciousness also has many biological and social purposes, such as: processing information, choosing actions, setting priorities, adapting to new information and making rational decisions. Some examples of consciousness include: the tune of music stuck in people’s head, the sweetness of chocolate cake, the throbbing pain of a toothache, the strong emotions for the loved one, and judgement between good and evil, and right vs. wrong.
Today’s development and attempts to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to our daily life and, subsequently, to replace human labor is somewhat a blueprint of Čapek’s 1920s play R.U.R.
Artificial Intelligence is a field of computer science that focuses on creating machines that can perform tasks which normally require human intelligence and labor. Artificial Intelligence systems use algorithms, quantitative data and computational power to emulate human intelligence. In short, AI is the technology that enables computers and machines to simulate human learning, comprehension, problem solving and rational decision making.
In fact, the introduction of digital technology and cellular network and means of communication have already significantly changed many traditional aspects of our contemporary daily life, education system and cultural values. It remains a mystery of how the introduction of AI can and will change the fabric of human society – i.e., shared moral values, norms of behavior, laws, social institutions, cultural practices, distribution of wealth, and lifestyle of biological humans.
The views expressed here are those of the author.
3 Comments
Interesting that the author says that the Ten Commandments and the major world religions were all created by man, not by God. Is he atheist? Or maybe an agnostic? Stating that man and not God authored the Ten Commandments and created the major world religions sounds more like someone who does not believe in God. But from other posts I know that he is a Zionist who firmly believes God gave the Jews Israel for all eternity. What am I missing here?
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Shelia, you are missing the main concept of the article. True, according to the Bible, the Ten Commandments were created by God, not man. I was not specific enough in my article because it is not a central point of my essay. Arguably, world major religions, as INSTITUTIONS, were created by man, with a God guidance.