Best selling science fiction books. Is there anything dependable in scifi stories?
Science fiction books reveal new worlds to the #scifi readers who eagerly wait to get transported into these worlds of science fiction, and let their scientific vitality seeking imagination roam freely in this world; gathering moments of scientific ratification necessary for building a pedagogic pathway that leads to the progressive development of scifi reader’s imagination. And it is a highly concerted effort on part of the scifi reader and an extra concerted effort when it comes to the author of the #scifibook. Who has to ensure that his/her scifibook does not become the birthplace of vitriolic scientific concepts that the scifi readers despise letting their minds become a part of.
All for one reason alone: Lack of acceptable realism that makes the #scifi concept appear more like an undependable reality that fails to offer confidence to the scifi readers. Who are cautious not to get carried away by the false display of scientific fortitude that can make the scifi readers victims of unsolicited moments of reality. Because they are baseless and preposterous. In that they proclaim what can have an existence only in a fiction dependent world as it is completely devoid of reality.
But what does this mean?
Reality is not what exists and can be seen, reality is anything that can be proven by employing scientific scrutiny. And something, rather anything that cannot be proven scientifically is a reality too, but it is surrounded by endless doubts. Because about it nothing can be proven at all. And these doubts never appear to settle as long as someone does not find a means to prove that the reality in question is either riddled with imperfections or prove that there is some ingredient of dependable reality in it. Only then this proposed reality can acquire a kind of stable state i.e. rejection or acceptance by the #scifi reader’s mind.
And there are a few #scifibooks that never let the mind of scifi reader raise doubts about the dependable aspects of the new scientific realities proposed by them. The reality that in the scifibook gets focused on the scifi reader’s mind, that is anxiously seeking new scientific exploits. That have to be in proportion with his/her eagerness to explore new scientific fronts. Where he/she can reduce the chasm between dependable reality and reality that still depends largely on the fiction. If a #scifibook offers enough evidence to support the fiction dependent reality, the #scifi readers become least opposing towards it; and the fiction dependent reality begins to move more into the scifi reader’s hemisphere of verified and dependable realities that have a provable aspect of reality ascribed to them.
Let us try to bring it under the umbrella of clearer perspective based understanding.
I am sure you have read the #scifibook titled: The Invisible Man written by Mr. H. G. Wells. Imagine a scifi reader reading this scifibook 50 years ago.
Are you thinking what I am thinking?
We are on the same trail of thoughts because any #scifi reader in those days would have treated this concept about human invisibility as someone's imagination gone too wild. So wild that it lost its touch with reality. Therefore, making it too dependent on fiction, that the scifi readers then would have found least acceptable. Because imagining a human being becoming invisible would be like turning the physical state of the human body into something as impalpable as air. And when it comes to scientific proof of such a concept, it falls flat.
Making it a scifi concept that can have existence only in a fiction dependent world that is completely devoid of reality. And to many scifi readers the #scifibook with such a remarkable concept, just because of the scientifically brave and unheard of reality would have become the birthplace of a scientific concept that is vitriolic. Because the scifi readers would have found it too fictitious to be true.
I think this offers clarity to what I am trying to explain via this blog post. As I explain the other side of it, it will become much clearer to you.
Imagine you and I reading this #scifibook in 2024. By the way, I once again read it in 2023. And I did not at all find it conceptually retrogressive, instead I found it scientifically very progressive. And my mind could relate with the struggles of the scientist who wanted to invent invisibility. And instantly my mind assumed an aggressively defensive mode whenever my very little knowledge about physics, biology and chemistry began doubting the validity of this concept.
And there it was! The rush of #scifi trance that led to a revelation. That Mr. H. G. Wells used chemistry as the means to achieve invisibility, but given our advancements in optics and related faculty of physics. I realised that achieving invisibility is not impossible at all if we apply physics more than chemistry to the concept of invisibility.
So, I myself as a scifi reader forced myself to invent a dependable reality for this brave and very intelligent idea of invisibility proposed by a brilliantly talented #scifi writer like Mr. H. G. Wells.
This is what happens when a brave and exciting scifi concept is leasing too much standing from fiction; the scifi reader’s mind consciously seeks appropriateness in these not dependable figments of imagination. And if the #scifi author has seeded in his/her brave scientific idea a hint of provable reality, the scifi reader’s mind is able to spot it with an undeniable certainty. It is just the matter of time when scientifically broadminded scifi readers will someday discover the dependable reality in the inventive thought of the scifi author. And this is where scifi books are unique. If the scifi author invents something, it forces a diligent scifi reader to discover something in it. And if the #scifi author’s imagination discovers something, it offers the scifi reader a lot of scope to invent something from it.
Now that shall explain what is the true purpose behind this blog post. It is to make the scifi readers realise one important fact. Reality is not real enough unless it can be proven. It is almost like the sleeping state of human body. You exist and you do not exist as well. Both realities are true. But it depends on who is is sleeping and who is observing the person sleeping. For the person observing the person sleeping, the sleeping person exists, because he/she is right there. But for the person sleeping, the person observing him/her does not exist, because he/she cannot see him/her, although he/she is right there in front of him/her.
And #scifibooks always come with similar realities, where a part of it is sleeping. But there is a predominant constant in this case. A scifibook always represents the #scifi author, who is physically absent and is the one sleeping. Whereas the scifi readers who are reading the scifi book are the ones observing the #scifi author’s imagination while being fully awake. If we observe carefully, we will always find enough evidence that the scifi author exists as does his/her imagination, that only requires scifi readers’ earnest evaluation, in order to offer it that status of dependable reality. And if nothing at all, at least arrive at the realisation that something of this nature cannot be supported by provable reality.
That is what will be termed as scifi reader’s inventive instinct that never refrains from discovering new realities. Now this is a bit complicated, but brain twisters of this nature place us on the busy runway of scientific thoughts proposed by #scifibooks. Where these scientific thoughts pace on two tracks: proven reality and endless imagination. And it is upto the scifi readers to add enough momentum to reality and catch up with these endless ideas of imagination. And when that happens, achieving invisibility in humans seems possible. All it takes is to believe in something and then work on it with extreme dedication. Like the scientist in Mr. H. G. Wells #scifi novel, The Invisible Man.
If you need motivation to offer sufficient momentum to your thoughts so that they can catch up with imagination where many inventions and discoveries wait to reveal themselves. Then you must read the scifibook titled: They Loved in 2075.
Well, this romance #scifibook is very unique, because it is based on imagination that is already resting on strong pillars of dependable reality. Because it is about the world that will exist in 2075, and this imagination is based on scientific and social realities of today, which are evolving fast. And in 2075, scientific advancement will be at its highest point and so will be social evolution of humans. Because it is a known and historically proven fact that whenever scientific achievements reach a pinnacle, societies experience a lot of cultural and behavioural changes. Few changes are acceptable and a few are unacceptable.
Take for example the romance story narrated in the #scifibook, They Loved in 2075. Where due to increased interaction of the girl, whom the lead character is in love with; fails to emote like humans. Her human layer of emotion has entered a dormancy state because of her increased interaction with self aware machines.
And there will be many such realities humans will have to face in 2075, both on technological and social front. You might be thinking this person is buying too much from baseless imagination. Just like a few readers would have thought about Mr. H. G. Wells when he had published his book titled, The Invisible Man.
Let me offer something in support of my claim.
Have you heard of these words:
Emoji
Smiley
GIF and Jpeg files
Txt me
Gnt ( Good night )
Tweet
If I would have used these words with my father who was highly educated, and he loved reading a lot. He would be clueless about all of them, except one word. Do you know why? He belonged to a different generation when smartphones did not exist and people did not use chatting based interfaces, which caused a linguistic revolution. It is the same with my mother too, whom I consider to be the walking encyclopedia of proverbs used in our local dialect ( Kashmiri ). And please do not ask me about her reaction! Whenever I tell her gnt, she offers me a blank expression, devoid of everything; except one expression. A smile that means a smile, but the reason for the smile is not even known to her. And for very obvious reasons. Generation gap. And maybe it has something to do with the progressiveness of society as well. Because few of the American, European, and a very few Indian grandmothers who are older than her know more about emojis and gnt like lingo than I do. I will attribute this quality to ones eagerness to learn; and that inner instinct that wants you to stay current. Because you believe in being forever young; and there is nothing wrong when it comes to maintaining this type of youth.
But that does not mean people like my mother are less progressive. I believe they are differently progressive. Because she keeps adding more proverbs to her already saturated dictionary of local proverbs. And whenever she uses these proverbs with the young generation of today, they offer her the look that she gives them when they use lingo like GNT etc. with her. So it is a balanced conflict of likes, progressiveness, dislikes, cultural beliefs, dogmas, stigmas, and a lot of other elements too. And it is necessary for societies to develop, and for them to be able to reach that ultimate social extract that is acceptable to all. Without it societies will experience stagnation of all forms.
As far as I am concerned, I like knowing my local proverbs, while staying current with GNT like lingo too. Because a person of my age will otherwise be like a bridge that leads nowhere. As it will have no ends to connect itself to.
And Oxford University Press is very proactive and expeditiously prompt when it comes to noticing such linguistic and cultural changes.
Why?
Because if you refer to an Oxford dictionary, a 30 years old edition, you will not find the exact meanings of these words, except for the word tweet. Which has been a formal word in English language, and that is why earlier in this blog post I admitted my father would have known it. However, if you refer to the latest editions of Oxford dictionary you will find these words included there. Not all, but words like smiley, emoji etc. Because txt and gnt are not words, they are either short forms of words or phrases and these words would not appear in the Oxford dictionary.
It is commendable that Oxford University Press notices these cultural changes and recognises them as linguistic evolution as well.
Please do not deny it. It is advanced societies, not conservative societies that realise these changes and accept them after proper examination. But at the same time, their bohemian class objects to a few changes brought forth by excessive technology and the society begins to reject these unwelcome changes. That is why few societies are very advanced today. And societies that possess every resource to be as advanced as these already advanced societies are lagging behind. Because they are unwilling to accept Emoji or Smiley as words. But the truth is, it is not harmful at all! On the contrary by recognising these new linguistic trends and including them in formal dictionaries, the society adds new words to its language. At the same time the society learns to become more adaptive as a global society.
But what is wrong and inappropriate should be pointed out and left out as well. The #scifibook, They Loved in 2075, is about all this and a lot more. It also is about one important question. Should humans feel like humans in 2075 or there is no harm if humans began feeling and behaving like machines? Afterall, machines powered by AI are advanced and more intelligent than humans today?
This will be your choice and in the end it will be our collective choice! I have made mine! #Scifibook, They Loved in 2075, makes the process of making this choice easier. Enjoy reading it and develop your lingo of 2075, that will be much needed by all those alive and living then. God speed!