Best selling science fiction books. Why do scifi readers read them?

 

Best selling science fiction books. Why do scifi readers read them?

Science fiction book discussions are mildly polemical in a way. Just in a way, because most of the #scifi book related discussions have a single trajectory of thought, that of science. And then it depends on every scifi reader to decide how far he/she can accelerate his/her imagination versus the scifi author’s imagination, expressed in his/her best selling science fiction book. 

So, it is a silent discussion that takes place in the quietude of two minds. Aggressively debating, adjusting, accepting; and at times contradicting the scientific thought that the best selling scifi book claims has the potential to form a new embryo of scientific reality. A scientific reality like none other.

And when it comes to other genres like fantasy where too the author's imagination meets the reader’s imagination head on. The reading experience is unlike #scifibooks; because there is no element of science involved. It is a pure work of fantasy where everything is possible. Where gravity can be cancelled completely from the universe and still expect a universe with absolute order. That is true fantasy! 

But in the case of science fiction, the moment a scifi reader comes across a fantasy like thought he/she instinctively turns into a polemicist because his/her scientific awareness prompts him/her to question it with logical sense. 

However, when the same reader is reading a fantasy book, the reader expects, with a conscious awareness, to come across concepts that actually break every rule of science. That is why it is a fantasy. And there is no need for the reader to be a mild polemicist.

Human imagination is limitless but fantasy always begins where imagination ends. Because imagination is based on scientific facts, when referring to scifi books, especially best selling scifi books. Where the scifi author can take many liberties, except one. Not to imagine anything that cannot be backed by some scientific logic. 

Whereas when it comes to fantasy anything can be true, because in fantasy based plots science is the only lie that exists. This offers a lot of liberty to fantasy writers. Although this genre is one of the most demanding genres to write about. Because the fantasy writers have to keep the reader in a continuous state of wonder. A wonder that never ends and continues as long as the fantasy story has not concluded. And this demands a very different kind of imagination that all cannot master. 

This brings us to a very important question. If the best selling #scifibooks turn scifi readers into mild polemicists, then why do scifi readers feel this intense need to find and read another best selling scifi book? What is the reason?

Let me answer this question with another question. Right, another question.

Do you know what led humans from the stone age to the current age of Artificial Intelligence?

Well, many of you might thank Darwin for his theory of evolution, for this unstoppable progress made by humans in different sectors. But even Darwin would not have been able to propose his famous theory of evolution without this virtue- The true force that makes all living species, and mostly humans insurmountable when it comes to survival and progress.

The virtue is called : curiosity.

By being curious, humans have advanced from stone tool users to being the users of smartphones and quantum computers. And many animals and other living beings too have evolved and progressed. But they prefer not to beat us technologically, so we ignore their progress. But the fact is they too have progressed without being retrogressive. 

And when a #scifi reader goes through a best selling scifi book, it initiates a reaction of curiosity in his/her mind, which further proliferates his/her mind with new ideas. Which are being constantly and almost instantaneously reviewed by the scifi reader’s scientific awareness. So, what appears to be an act of polemics is actually an act of enhancing one's scientific knowledge by being able to entertain a new idea with a curious mind and not an angry or agitated mind. It is based on healthy discussion which is silent and liberal. That is why I have phrased it as “mildly polemical.” 

Although there are a few #scifibooks that employ some fantasy, and when the scifi reader encounters these moments of fantasy in the ecosystem of logic and scientific thinking, the scifi reader outrightly rejects the scifi based concept by exhibiting disgruntled behaviour, that may seem to be an unnecessarily agitated reaction from the scifi reader. But in these cases it is an obvious reaction, because the scifi readers always expect to deal with a science based imagination and not just a fantasy where anything is possible in the vacuum of logic.

And the best selling scifi books, almost always, stay away from such situations where the scifi reader is forced to turn into an agitated and a brash reader. Because the authors of the best selling scifi books know the difference between prompting the reader to be a  mild polemicist and not an outright and blind folded contradictor. Thus they avoid falling into a death trap of imaginations.

A best selling scifi book is able to offer a condensed view of existing scientific realities. By creating an embryonic thought that is able to lead to a totally new scientific reality based on these existing sets and subsets of scientific realities. And when a scifi reader discovers this new scientific reality via the best selling scifi book, his/her imagination feels rewarded and suckled by this new scientific thought. Its influence is so intense that the scifi reader develops a science centric addiction.

More than anything else, scifi readers are liberal in their approach. A person with conservative mindset can never appreciate the true wonder of scifi, because he/she would always find a reason to contradict even the most valid and radical scientific ideas. And I believe liberalism is highly accommodating. It always seeks the new, it thrives on never ending curiosity and acceptance of other ideas, while not shying away from examining them with aggressive scientific realities. 

And it is a fact, a fool may have millions of questions to which even a genius like Einstein may have no answers. But does that make Einstein less of a genius or it makes the fool look more foolish? 

And a person who is a conservative scifi reader will mostly tend to rule out the best selling scifi book as a work of fantasy, because he/she is unwilling to be a mild polemicist. Since he/she prefers being an unabashed contradictor. Thus he/she never gets to experience the wonder called science fiction, where human imagination engineers the hallmark scientific realities of the future. 

It is to seek these hallmark scientific realities that a true #scifi reader always seeks to feed his/her restless and curious logical imagination. Because he/she suffers from an addiction called “addiction to science!”

Where he/she interacts with a powerful scifi book, is able to imagine what will take over AI and Computer sciences in the future. A future that lies 150 years ahead. That is what is really amazing about scifi. And it is true, AI and computers will be replaced by something more like the human mind in a matter of 3 to 4 decades. A new and groundbreaking technology will render them too insignificant. All because semiconductors will be reverse engineered. By someone, who believes in his/her imagination, and thinks like a liberal and not as a “conservative captive-” A captive, because he/she always lies confined to his/her own imagination of fantasies. Where scifi based mostly on logic does not exist.

Whereas a true scifi reader always seeks the new wonder of science. A new way to feed his/her science centric addiction that helps him/her to remain sane in his/her dimension of existence. With least care about what the exo world and the beings in it think of him/her. Because in the end it is not the critics who invent a simple thing like wheel, it is the doers who believe in something like wheel and work on it inspite of every criticism. Because they are liberal believers in science and the imagination based on logic.

And we all know what new direction of progress was facilitated by something as simple as a wheel. Had it not been for wheel, humanity may still have been lingering and dragging itself in the field of life. 

But as it is with the world and humans in general, we often celebrate inventions which we can associate with someone. But do we ever think of the person who invented the wheel? A major breakthrough in the entire history of science.

This is where #scifibooks are different. The best scifi books always give credit to the unknown, and never celebrated geniuses like the one who invented the wheel. And scifi readers being liberals, love reading scifi books because these books give credit even to nobody in the scientific community. They recognise those whom the scientific community often tends to miss, if not ignore them. I know! Everyone, in a class of 65 students cannot be a topper, but everyone can clear the exams and proceed to the next class. And the bestselling selling scifi books promote this type of progress. The scifi authors do not add any limitation to progress. Via their best selling scifi books they allow the unknown geniuses with scientific imagination to be the prophets of scientific change, without the fear of being criticised.

Let me surprise you now! 

There is a scifi book that fills the mind of a true scifi reader with similar wonder, and it is titled They Loved in 2075.

It is a scifi wonder of a different kind, with a totally different flavour. Because it takes scifi liberalism to an all new height. Making the scifi reader think about the world that might exist in 2075 in the presence of self aware machines. It brings the scifi reader to the pivotal moment. Where he/she is forced to think how human emotions and feelings will evolve in presence of synthetic emotions and the increasing interaction of humans with self aware machines able to emote like humans.

When the world in 2075 is surrounded by these doubts and distortions of human emotions; a boy falls in love with a beautiful girl who is not able to emote like humans.

This is where scifi liberalism ascends the highest peak of #scifi imagination. 

To know what happens and why this scifi book, They Loved in 2075, epitomises the scifi imagination. You must read this romance #scifi book that introduces the scifi reader to new scientific concepts and naturally allows him/her to be a mild polemicist. Because healthy discussion promotes good and sustainable science.