Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Science fiction has a number of common concepts and themes that have been reused by numerous authors. Some have become cliches, and only truly novel treatments of them gain attention, whilst others have become "part of the furniture", ie they can be included in a story without much explanation, because readers are all already familiar with the core concept. In alphabetical order: Aliens (see Aliens in fiction) Alien invasion Benevolent aliens First contact Principles of non-interference (e.g. Prime Directive) Xenobiology Androids Cyborgs and Cybernetics Robots Apocalypses or world wide disasters See also Post-apocalyptic science fiction Arcologies Artificial intelligence Clones Colonisation Terraforming Cosmology Creation of the Universe Ultimate fate of the Universe Omega Point Cryonics Cyberpunk Steampunk Ecology Science Fiction is used to raise awareness of Ecological ideas. Lends itself well to dystopian futures. Frank Herbert and Kim Stanley Robinson are known for their serious concern with ecological issues. Economics Post-"Age of Scarcity" (arguments over how to distribute resources are irrelevant since anyone can have anything they reasonably want, e.g. The Culture, and the problems of excessive wealth as in Frederik Pohl's The Midas Plague) Fantasy fiction Galactic Empire History Alternate history History repeating itself (either on long or short scales) Scientific prediction of the future (e.g. Psychohistory) Secret history Horror fiction Interstellar travel Faster than Light Hyperspace Warp drivess Wormholes Very nearly light speed Ursula LeGuin's NAFAL ships, and the Twin paradox Much slower than Light Generation ship Sleeper ship Moving planets Language Alien languages (e.g. Klingon) All humans speaking one language (possibly Esperanto) Current human languages evolving/splitting The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis being strongly true (eg Babel 17 by Samuel R. Delany or The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance) Universal Translators (e.g. Babelfish) Military - strategy, weapons, ranks, technologies. Ray guns Space warfare Mind Artificial intelligence Beings of pure mentality Hive minds Memory removal/editing Mind control Mind uploading Neural implants and interfacing with machinery (directly) Solipsism Mutants Parallel worlds or universes. Planets in Science Fiction Politics Dystopias and (supposed) utopias Galactic Empire Interstellar federation of planets Totalitarianism vs. Libertarianism World government Workable anarchism Post-apocalyptic science fiction and new societies that develop after the event There is a space based civilization variant of this theme. This plot device allows writers to write Soft Science Fiction while accounting for the lack of technological advancement and thus similarity to the present day. Posthumanism Enhancement of the organism Body modification, including genetic modification Cyborgs Psi powers Clairvoyance Telepathy Telekinesis Sex (including gender roles, sexuality and procreation) Shapeshifting Simulated reality Sociology and sociobiology return to feudalism hive-like eusocial societies future caste systems Superhumans Technology and its side effects Nanotechnology Singularity Telepathy Teleportation Time travel Anachronism The Grandfather paradox -- e.g. Can someone go back in time and kill his parents before they beget the killer? Uplift Virtual reality External Links http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/scifi.html http://www.jessesword.com/SF/sf_citations.shtml http://www.itsf.org/resources/keywords.php http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~main/sfthemes.html This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.