Once upon a time, science fiction was just a style among other styles. There were crime stories, there were horror stories, there was literary fiction-and there was science fiction. But today science themes dominate these other styles. It's difficult to think of much modern crime, horror or "serious" fiction that doesn't involve science. And it's not just books. With every second movie and computer game having a sci-fi element, science fiction seems to have controlled our entire entertainment culture. It's clear that if we want to define science fiction we should relate it to the role that science plays in our lives. Perhaps the place to start is by noting when it began. Although some experts have claimed to be able to trace sci-fi back to ancient times, it is more plausible to find it in initial form in the 19th century, when industrial societies arose. One of the features that set industrial societies apart from other kinds was the increasing part that science played in everyday life. Factories with vast machines turned out huge quantities of goods, which were transported by trains, motor vehicles and ships all over the world. Cities were built on the back of technology, with electricity in homes and hospitals helping everyone to lead healthier, more convenient lives. All of these changes had great effects not only on people's real lives, but on their imaginative ones. Writers began to articulate these changing physical and mental landscapes, eventually giving science fiction a large and devoted fan base of especially young readers, who found that it spoke to their curiosity about the future that science would create. But sci-fi reflected fears about science more than it did hopes. These typical early science fiction novel might be a UK novel like H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1897). With great skill, Wells played upon the fears of technology by imagining Earth under threat by a civilization -that of men from Mars. The science fiction of today expresses the impact of the computing revolution, robotics and our environmental challenges, while it is less concerned with "little green men from Mars" and other themes of past sci-fi. Given that science, technology and politics are always intertwined  , contemporary science fiction often has a great deal to say about power. Many recent novels - like American Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (2008) - are concerned with government and security service "conspiracies  " against the people, particularly as the revelations of whistleblowers like Edward Snowden sink in. This can give sci-fi writing a "skeptical" feel. This underlines one of the features that remains constant between the beginnings of the empire of science fiction and its state today. As then, so now: We want to read about how fearful the future will be, not how it will be a paradise  . What's the main idea of the passage?
The impact of the science fiction. The development of the science fiction. The content of the science fiction. The characteristic of the science fiction.