Social Science Fiction

A literature designed to excite a speculative response about the structure of society, social science fiction in its nascent form is found alongside the amateur rocketry societies of the 1930s until the end of World War II. This genre gains prominence after the American use of atomic weaponry on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, as a demand grows for a cultural space to debate the nature and ethics of technological advance. It declines as a genre in the 1960s, when the next generation of writers takes on the label the New Wave and becomes more popular. Because of its origins in low-circulation magazines, social science fiction practitioners become experts at using the mechanism of mass media to achieve reflection and introspection on the part of readers—so much so that fans of the genre develop an alternative public sphere dedicated to analyzing the direction of public policy toward science.

Social science fiction is a genre that presents a future that has been constructed, therefore promoting the idea that the future is contingent and adaptive; such a future is seen to be subject to the decisions individuals make. Its best-known practitioners are Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Gene Roddenberry, Frank Herbert, and Ursula Le Guin: these employ a blend of mythological tropes and utopian forms in order to create a vision of alternative societies that are separated from the present not by geography, as in the traditional utopia, but in time. The authors of social science fiction self-consciously provide an alternative discussion to the scientific-commercial-military establishment, leading discussions about the proper use of technology, the effects of the diffusion of technology, and the place of the individual in technologized society, hoping that their stories would inculcate ethics among scientists and technologists, secure a future protected and enhanced by science by creating a sense of possibility in the young, and awaken the general public to the importance of scientific literacy.

Like regular science fiction, social science fiction derives from the “weird tales” at the end of the 19th century. It develops alongside other forms of science fiction, such as the adventure or hardware science fiction tales that excited the popular imagination. The genesis of social science fiction is attributed to John W. Campbell. In the 1930s, he wrote a new kind of weird tale under the pseudonym Don A. Stuart. His first story using this name, “Twilight” of 1934, reflects the sensibility of utopian authors in that a time traveler visits the end of humanity; the decay of civilization contrasts with the machinery it has left behind. In 1938, Campbell assumed the editorship of Astounding Science Fiction, and under his editorship, he encouraged writers to follow his footsteps and use their stories to raise awareness about scientific ethics and the nature of technological change, helping readers to question fundamental assumptions about the nature of humanity and the structure of society. In addition to Asimov and Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon, L. Sprague De Camp, Mark Clifton, L. Ron Hubbard, Raymond F. Jones, and A. E. Van Vogt were part of Campbell's cadre.

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