English 192 - Science Fiction
Potential Topics for the Second Paper

Robotic Identity / Robotic Humanity

From Asimov’s robots to Dick’s androids the creations of human technology have become more and more human, blurring the line between the natural and the inorganic. Should robots be considered human? Are human beings, through their close relationship to technology, becoming more robotic?

The Problem of Memory

In Blade Runner, "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the reliability of memory is questioned. How is memory important in identity formation? Are we what we remember? What is the difference between fate, free will, and good programming?

Gender Roles and Gender Rules

Science Fiction is often considered a "boys’ club." Consider the depictions of gender roles in at least two of the works we have read this quarter. How are these roles informed by their contemporary time? What rules of gender roles and relations are modeled in these works? Why might this be? Are there alternatives?

New Tech — Under the Skin

In his preface to Mirrorshades Bruce Sterling writes that 1980’s technology is "visceral" and "sticks to the skin" (xiii). In novels like Neuromancer and Snow Crash, stories like "The Girl Who Was Plugged In," and films like Ghost in the Shell characters interact with technology at the level of their own flesh. How do these interactions shape and change post-modern identity?

Virtual Worlds and Virtual Lives

The Matrix in Neuromancer and the Street in Snow Crash are examples of virtual worlds within which characters spend a great deal of their time and energy. Additionally, Dixie in Neuromancer, the doggies in Snow Crash and Delphi in "The Girl Who Was Plugged In" are characters whose lives are, to one extent or another, virtual. How is life affected and even changed by these virtual worlds? Is virtual life really life? What is lost or gained through virtuality?

Modern Dystopias and Utopias
In "The Gernsback Continuum" William Gibson presents the 30s pulp fiction vision of a scientific utopia as terrifying and somehow less desirable than the "human near-dystopia we live in" (465). Is ours a dystopian world? What kind of utopia dreams are possible in this world?

Are We Post-Human?
What makes someone human? What is the essential quality of being human? As a culture, and in our fiction, are we still human? Have we become something else? Is this something more or less than human? What might it mean to be post-human?

Science Fiction

Bruce Sterling writes that science fiction themes in the present day "are not just literary tools but an aid to daily life" (xi). What is science fiction? How can it be defined? How has science fiction changed or developed over the last century? How does science fiction impact our contemporary lives?