Science Fiction Short Stories

Science Fiction: Exploring Innovative Ideas

Science fiction usually explores the possible outcomes of scientific and other types of innovations. Science fiction is believed to be a literature of ideas because of the fresh concepts it brings into peoples’ minds (Roberts 17). Even though most of its concepts are often not existing, they give human beings the challenge of making them exist. Science fiction is also used in shorts stories especially the ancient ones. Both the ‘Stranger in Paradise’ and ‘The Sieve’ are short science fiction stories even though they are written with different authors and in different ages. ‘Stranger in Paradise’ introduces the technology of robots whereas ‘The Sieve’ introduces the idea of rockets and an Administrative Center which remained undamaged even during accidents and calamities. Though these technologies were not present my then, they exist in the contemporary society. So, social fiction stories are accurate in predicting the future in terms of social issues and real technologies.

‘Stranger in Paradise’: a Post-Disaster World

In 1973, Isaac Asimov wrote a science fiction little narrative known as ‘Stranger in Paradise’ (Gunn 63). Before it was accepted by If magazine, this story was rejected by both Ben Bova and Judy-Lynn del Rey. After the acceptance, it was reprinted in three different collections. The story is all about two full brothers known as William Anti-Aut and Anthony Smith. They stay in a post-disaster universe where, because of the worries on humanity’s restricted genetic diversity, full siblings are uncommon. Apart from being full brothers, William and Anthony are identical, which is completely a new thing in this world. William takes a professional in genetic engineering which is known as homology. So, he has been attempting to understand and treat Autism. From this, he got is the second name, which is Anti-Aut.

Telemetric and the Mercury Project

On the other hand, Anthony pursues telemetric. He is dealing with the Mercury Project which is purposed to send a robot to Mercury. This is a challenge due to the positronic mind at the period which is not yet adjusted to such a surrounding. So, the robot must be directed by a computer on earth. Another problem is that computer control is hard because the speed of light communications interval between Mercury and Earth can survive only for twenty minutes or less. Anthony tries to find a solution to this issue by hiring a horologist that can make a positronic brain resembling the brain of human beings. The greatest horologist in this region is his sibling William and the two brothers end up working together. William is determined to assist in forming the brain. However, the brain is horribly gawky when the robot is tried in Arizona. Anthony losses hope in the robot but William holds that it was formed for the surrounding of Mercury and not Arizona. In the end, the project was successful because the robot operated smoothly when it was sent to Mercury. William found the solution to be using an autistic human instead of a computer to guide the robot (Asimov and Dan 47). The narrative finishes with Anthony and William making friends with each other after being separated for a very long period.

‘The Sieve’: Consequences of Nuclear Warfare

‘The Sieve’ is a short fiction tale written by Christopher Anvil. Dave and Benton were the main characters in the story which starts with them finding themselves amidst the corpse of the dead roller which was sprawled over a pile of fallen woods at the verge of the clearing. This fiction story shows the consequences of nuclear warfare. This story involves different world such as the New Mars and technologies such as the Administrative Center of the rocket-ship which remained undamaged even after the disaster. During those times engineers had lots of privileges since they were considered very great people in the society. For instance, Gina was an engineer in New Mars during a time that being an engineer was so rare in that world. He enjoyed benefits such as triple pay, double for over-time and tax-free. In addition, engineers that lived in New Mars for over thirty-six months were given a huge bonus. The story also includes some characters smoking weed as if it was legalized in that world. Becket even went further and said that is okay to smoke weed as long as the smokers are doing their job well. The supply rockets were being used to transport people but on the verge of the clearing, there were graves with flowers budding around them.

Predicting the Future

These two fiction stories play a part in predicting the future in terms of social and technological issues. The first story reveals the use of Artificial Intelligence which is one of the emerging trends in the United States and other nations. Nowadays, there are even self-driven cars designed from the idea of robots and artificial intelligence. Also, this idea of robots in the first story resembles the use of drones in World War II. The Americans used drones to spy and monitor the actions of the Germans before initiating an attack on them (Lyons 32). This was one of the main technologies that helped the Americans win the war and conquest the Nazi Germans. The second story basically shows the dangers and consequences of nuclear warfare. This story clearly shows that nuclear warfare can lead to an end of human existence. The story shows that nearly all people in the rocket-ship died except those who were in the administrative center which remained undamaged. Similarly, nuclear weapons end the lives of almost every person within the region being attacked (Seed 13). The chances of someone surviving during a nuclear warfare are very minimal. The social issue predicted in this second story is the legalization of marijuana. Characters in the story refer to marijuana as a good herb. Though the medicinal aspect of weed was not known by that time, it is evident that most of the characters in the story would have championed legalization of marijuana. For instance, said that is okay to smoke weed as long as the smokers are doing their job well. The legalization of marijuana has been an ongoing debate since long time ago up to the present day. Some nations have decided to go a step ahead and legalize marijuana only for medicinal purposes.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident in this paper that both ‘The Sieve’ and ‘Stranger in Paradise’ are accurate in predicting the future in terms of social issues and real technologies. Stranger in Paradise’ introduces the technology of robots whereas ‘The Sieve’ introduces the idea of rockets and an Administrative Center which remained undamaged even during accidents and calamities. Science fiction usually explores the possible outcomes of scientific and other types of innovations. Science fiction is believed to be a literature of ideas because of the fresh concepts it brings into peoples’ minds.

Works Cited

Asimov, Isaac, and Dan Lazar. The Best of Isaac Asimov. Sphere Books, 1973.

Gunn, James. Isaac Asimov: the foundations of science fiction. Scarecrow Press, 1996.

Lyons, Michael J. World War II: A short history. Routledge, 2016.

Roberts, Adam. The history of science fiction. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Seed, David. American science fiction and the Cold War: Literature and film. Routledge, 2013.