What kinds of sources do Science Fiction authors use?
Do Science Fiction authors use the internet, books, and yes, they research, but on what kinds of different things? I need to know more about Science Fiction authors because my homework is due tomorrow. Thanks everyone 
- Heavenangeluv
Tags: Due Tomorrow, Fiction Books, Internet Books, Science Books, Science Homework
May 29th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Most Science fiction authors use industry experts for sources of information, and the very good, or great ones are scientists in their own right.
Isaac Asimov for instance not only wrote science fiction, (Over 750 books), but wrote just as many science text books, and was considered by many true scientists to be an inspiration.
The code of conduct for robots that is being programmed into robots today, is based on Isaac Asimov’s 3 robotic laws:
1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Later, Asimov added the Zeroth Law: “A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm”; the rest of the laws are modified sequentially to acknowledge this.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first passage in Asimov’s short story “Liar!” (1941) that mentions the First Law is the earliest recorded use of the word robotics.[1] Asimov was not initially aware of this; he assumed the word already existed by analogy with mechanics, hydraulics, and other similar terms denoting branches of applied knowledge.[2]
May 30th, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Science Fiction authors mostly use existing general knowledge. They may get their information from sources like books, internet, etc. but most of them use current scenarios in science, society, culture or anything else and extrapolate it to create a science fiction setting.
For example, an author may take a hovercraft (existing) and create a society with hover scooters and hover cars which people use like regular vehicles today (extrapolation).
That is the essence of science fiction - extrapolation. It is not limited to scientific scenarios. There is a science fiction short story in a futuristic setting in which usage of water is rationed per individual in USA, which is an extrapolation of a social scenario.
The best introductory book on science fiction is “Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1″ which is the collection of greatest science fiction short stories.
The most acclaimed science fiction author is Isaac Asimov. His short story Nightfall was voted the greatest short story ever in science fiction and features in the book I mentioned.
And remember, there is a difference between science fiction and Fantasy (e.g., Star Wars is Fantasy and not science fiction. Terminator 2 can be classified as Science Fiction).
May 31st, 2009 at 6:33 am
Science fiction is the fiction of technology, people and frontiers. SF writers research all of those things, and there is a big range of sources.
For science and technology matters, there is the Internet, popular science magazines like /Scientific American/, /New Scientist/ as well as science textbooks, newspapers, and scientists, engineers and technologists themselves.
For researching people, many writers rely on their own personal experiences, but they also draw from fiction of all kinds, as well as biographies, histories and other sources.
In science fiction, frontiers can be anything from places (outer space, new planets, under the sea, deep within the earth), to times (past, present or future), to scales (large or small), to states of being (life, death, psychology) to society and culture. The sources for these are very diverse: magazines, texts, experts, experience, interest groups, fiction, art, and even raw imagination.
You can get an idea for an SF story in several ways, but a simple way is to take some new or emerging technology (e.g. an Ipod) and asking a “what if” question about a frontier, e.g. “What if I could download my mind onto my Ipod?”.
Once you have the main idea, you can then unpack it into smaller questions: How do Ipods work? How might they store my mind? Who uses Ipods? Who might like to store their minds on an Ipod? What might be the good and the bad of doing that? These smaller questions tell you what to research.