Science Fiction - What is Sci-Fi ?

The term "science fiction" is almost as old as the movie industry itself. What actually is science fiction? In essence, it's telling a story that is technically impossible with the techniology of the day, but is theoretically possible with what is expected of the technology of tomorrow. Lets take some examples. When Star Trek first came onto our screens, people were amazed that you could hold a device in your hand and call somebody without the device having a wire. This "wireless" technical communication device was unknown at the time and yet today it's everywhere. Keeping with the Star Trek theme for the moment, do you remember Captain Kirk sitting in his chair and someone bringing him a tablet to read and sign. Again, a portable computer was unheard of but now they are common place. It feels fine now to watch Mr Spock with little plastic squares that he inserted into the computer, but when this was happening the floppy disc had not been invented, let alone thr CD.

Let's take one more example, this time from litertaure. Arthur C Clarke wrote about a system of devices placed around the Earth that could bounce a signal so that people could communicate from one side of the planet to the other. At the time, this was completely unheard of. We did not have any satellites. In fact, when we did start putting satellites into orbit the region of space where they go is called the "Clarke Belt" in honour of the visionary author that described it decades before.

We have, so far, talked about examples of science fiction that turned into science fact. However, there are also many examples of science fiction that are still beyond our capability. The question is, are they possible given a sufficient level of technology. That we don't really know, could we build faster than light starships? We will need to if we are going to survive as a species when the Earth is no longer habitable.