The Top Ten Big Ideas in SF?
At work somebody saw me reading the first Riverworld book and asked me about it, and when I was trying to describe what it was about, I mentioned that it's probably in the Top Ten "Big Ideas" in Science Fiction, although, unfortunately, the story doesn't quite live up to the idea.
Now, I sort of said that as a flippant way, not really knowing what the others were, but it got me thinking. What would you say are the Top Ten Big Ideas in Science Fiction?
I think the qualifiers must be: 1) It should have been either created or popularized by pretty much one person maybe two, through some kind of visionary leap (Space Travel doesn't count, since there were stories before we knew that Space was an airless, impassable void... Time Travel might because for all of human experience man has only gone one way). There might be other examples before or after, but you should be able to point to an originating source of the TREND with some sort of authority. 2) It has to have been widely imitated since (which MIGHT leave Riverworld out, but we might be able to slip it in under a wider category... or, maybe the top 5 would have to be, and from 5-10 might be specific ideas that are unique and specific enough that it's hard to imitate, or ripe for exploitation but yet hasn't happened yet). 3) It has to be a science fictional idea, as opposed to a fantasy one (for example, Time Travel through 'magic' might have been done before Wells, but to qualify for the list we're looking at the Science Fictional view of Time Travel).
Here's what I've come up with (this is an unordered top ten... or at least Top 5, because ordered "Top" lists always tend to annoy me)...
1) Time Travel (originator/popularizer: HG Wells)
2) Alternate Universes (Murray Leinster)
3) The Singularity (Vernor Vinge)
4) Zombie Apocalypse (George Romero and/or Richard Matheson... a bit iffy... I'd give it to Matheson, because his was more deliberately science fictional, I Am Legend's plague being caused by a virus... the big idea here being a a world-destroying virus that turns people into monsters and the victims of the monsters join the horde... really there's elements of both)
5) Artificial Intelligence/Robotics (Karel Capek)
We might be able to squeeze Riverworld either under the 6-10 rule, or as a general "Everybody In History Returns to Life together", though I'm not sure that's been especially widely imitated (Some Singularity fiction proposes the idea of everyone being simulated after their death, but other than that I can't think of any good examples... I do think it's RIPE for exploration).
Any other examples people on my flist can think of?
Now, I sort of said that as a flippant way, not really knowing what the others were, but it got me thinking. What would you say are the Top Ten Big Ideas in Science Fiction?
I think the qualifiers must be: 1) It should have been either created or popularized by pretty much one person maybe two, through some kind of visionary leap (Space Travel doesn't count, since there were stories before we knew that Space was an airless, impassable void... Time Travel might because for all of human experience man has only gone one way). There might be other examples before or after, but you should be able to point to an originating source of the TREND with some sort of authority. 2) It has to have been widely imitated since (which MIGHT leave Riverworld out, but we might be able to slip it in under a wider category... or, maybe the top 5 would have to be, and from 5-10 might be specific ideas that are unique and specific enough that it's hard to imitate, or ripe for exploitation but yet hasn't happened yet). 3) It has to be a science fictional idea, as opposed to a fantasy one (for example, Time Travel through 'magic' might have been done before Wells, but to qualify for the list we're looking at the Science Fictional view of Time Travel).
Here's what I've come up with (this is an unordered top ten... or at least Top 5, because ordered "Top" lists always tend to annoy me)...
1) Time Travel (originator/popularizer: HG Wells)
2) Alternate Universes (Murray Leinster)
3) The Singularity (Vernor Vinge)
4) Zombie Apocalypse (George Romero and/or Richard Matheson... a bit iffy... I'd give it to Matheson, because his was more deliberately science fictional, I Am Legend's plague being caused by a virus... the big idea here being a a world-destroying virus that turns people into monsters and the victims of the monsters join the horde... really there's elements of both)
5) Artificial Intelligence/Robotics (Karel Capek)
We might be able to squeeze Riverworld either under the 6-10 rule, or as a general "Everybody In History Returns to Life together", though I'm not sure that's been especially widely imitated (Some Singularity fiction proposes the idea of everyone being simulated after their death, but other than that I can't think of any good examples... I do think it's RIPE for exploration).
Any other examples people on my flist can think of?