Science Fiction Research Articles

The Metaverse for Cognitive Health: A Paradigm Shift

The Metaverse, frequently dubbed as ”the successor of mobile internet”, is a paradigm which aims to build an immersive, spatiotemporal and self-sustained virtual, but realistic world for all age groups. The Metaverse is stepping from science fiction to reality due to the advances in technologies like Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Everything, eXtended meta-uni-omni-Verse and Digital Twins. Consumer electronics such as wearables, television, and smartphones are essential components of the Metaverse that can be used to accurately collect and measure data concerning user interaction and thereby create an immersive environment. This article discusses the state of art literature about how the Metaverse can be used for improving cognitive health, various scenarios where the Metaverse could help doctors to better treat cognitive patients, and finally, the future research directions that can realize the potential of the Metaverse for cognitive health.

User-centric avatar design: A cognitive walkthrough approach for metaverse in virtual education

Metaverse, once a concept confined to science fiction, has emerged as a transformative reality during the digital era. As this immersive virtual world gains prominence, the role of avatars and the digital representations of users in shaping educational experiences within a metaverse becomes increasingly crucial. This study examined the design of avatars and their effectiveness in virtual education. Using the cognitive walkthrough (CW) method, a well-established user-centric assessment approach, this study examined how users engage in avatar design in virtual educational settings, highlighting their cognitive processes. Through the CW approach, this study identified usability issues and learning challenges, providing valuable insights into the user experience. The investigation focuses on the VRoid platform for avatar design, selected for its user-friendly interface and robust customization features. Participants (n ​= ​12; six men and six women) from diverse educational backgrounds were carefully selected to offer a comprehensive range of perspectives. They performed avatar design tasks that closely mirrored the learning environment of the metaverse, followed by in-depth post-exercise interviews. The findings of this study highlight the essential role of avatar design in enhancing user engagement and improving the learning outcomes of virtual education. Furthermore, we provide practical recommendations for educators and designers to effectively leverage avatar innovation. In a continuously evolving era of metaverse, this research contributes significantly to the ongoing discourse on user-centered design in educational settings, thereby influencing the future trajectory of virtual education.

Watching Women: Surveillance and Spectatorship in Early Science Fiction Television

Abstract This article analyzes episodes of early science fiction anthology series to examine how fears of television's ability to turn its gaze on the home circulated around women, both as objects of surveillance and as television spectators, in the 1950s and 1960s. Media historians have called attention to the importance of women in defining the role of new technologies and have detailed the gendered popular constructions of early television. This article stems from such work, addressing the time when audiences and producers alike were grappling with the imagined potential of television's visuality and liveness to impose visibility on its viewers. Early episodes of Tales of Tomorrow, The Twilight Zone, and The Outer Limits expose anxieties about the power of television as a surveillance mechanism to enact control over audiences. Formally and narratively, these episodes complicate the division between seeing and being seen, particularly for women viewers, while enacting strategies to contain and discipline women. They mobilize women's navigation of visual subjectivity and objectification only to eschew their ability to look and reify their status as objects to be looked at. By taking a closer look at early television surveillance narratives, this article demonstrates how women's television spectatorship has always entailed a complex negotiation of imposed looking relations that paradoxically attempt to deny the female gaze even as they depend on it. Understanding this historical context helps illuminate the gendered power dynamics of spectatorship and visibility in our present media landscape, in which the convergence of TV and surveillance technologies realizes the imagined fears of the mid-twentieth century.

Visualization and Visual Analytics in Autonomous Driving.

Autonomous driving is no longer a topic of science fiction. Advancements of autonomous driving technologies are now reliable. Effectively harnessing the information is essential for enhancing the safety, reliability, and efficiency of autonomous vehicles. In this article, we explore the pivotal role of visualization and visual analytics (VA) techniques used in autonomous driving. By employing sophisticated data visualization methods, VA, researchers, and practitioners transform intricate datasets into intuitive visual representations, providing valuable insights for decision-making processes. This article delves into various visualization approaches, including spatial-temporal mapping, interactive dashboards, and machine learning-driven analytics, tailored specifically for autonomous driving scenarios. Furthermore, it investigates the integration of real-time sensor data, sensor coordination with VA, and machine learning algorithms to create comprehensive visualizations. This research advocates for the pivotal role of visualization and VA in shaping the future of autonomous driving systems, fostering innovation, and ensuring the safe integration of self-driving vehicles.

Revisiting Predictions about the Future of Human Life in 20th Century American Sci-Fis

Predictions and illustrations of life in the future are often integrated in works of science fiction, which could not be immediately proven yet possibly fascinating when looked back on several decades later or at the times predicted in the works. Science fiction authors foretell such events by borrowing theories, concepts, or simply terms used by scientists. Those theories, concepts, and terms can be written in scientific journals or in more popular media. American science fiction works, for instance, illustrate the future by their adaptation in the forms of more popular media such as movies, video games, and the works categorized as the subgenres of cyber literature. All of them are discussed in this paper from the lens of New Historicism, which believes in equality between literary and non-literary texts in viewing phenomena that exist in society, one of which is the relationship between science fiction works, their writers, their readers, and society. Technology is seen as a product of society, so it becomes broadly part of culture. Meanwhile, emerging technology is sometimes coincidental and random, so it can also be seen that technology determines people’s movements and lifestyles. This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the ethical and societal implications of speculative narratives by highlighting the interconnectedness between literature, science, technology, and society.

인공지능(AI)시대의 호모 사케르(Homo Sacer)

This study examines the evolution of posthumans in novels and movies as a relationship between sex and love, focusing on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer. Agamben tried to reveal the essence of life politics through the concept of Homo Sacer, which is, bare life. Bare life means only biological life in all living things that Aristotle divided into Zoe and Bios, and humans pursue the life of Bios, who live as a member of a community of society, politics, and culture beyond the life of Zoe. Artificial intelligence robots have only Zoe's life, deprived of their social and political life, Bios. With the development of technology, such AI has a more human appearance, emotion, intelligence, and ability than humans, and dreams of the realm of Bios pursued by humans. I analyzed the emotions and identity of humans and posthuman beings in the AI era, focusing on Rachel in Phillip Dick's novel, the movie Ex Machina's Ava, and David Mitchell's novel of the same name, Cloud Atlas' Sonmi-451. Female mechanical humans are creatures that have life but have no value for existence, and they become invisible others in oppression and governance, appearing as unfamiliar fears, that is, the uncanny. This study examined why humans pursue sexual relationships with machine humans through female AI's uncanny, whether it is possible to fall in love with them, and what it means for programmed AI to evolve on its own, control emotions, and use it to mock humans. As machines become more human-like, their uncanniness makes humans even more uneasy and fearful. If humans can no longer be distinguished from machines, it is necessary to redefine humanity to understand what makes us human. Only then, when the science fiction imagined becomes a scientific reality, can we truly live as humans.

The Mechanism of Survival in Post-Apocalyptic Pandemic Narratives: A Comparative Study

Post-Apocalyptic Fiction is a subgenre of science fiction in which a global crisis takes its toll on the human population, leaving only a few with the luck of surviving the scene. However, survival slowly develops into a determining power as the remaining people try to reconstruct a new civilization with the use of different strategies and mechanisms of survival. This study is then based on post-apocalyptic texts, particularly ones that are concerned with pandemics, and carefully examines and compares two ground-breaking narratives of post-apocalyptic fiction: Stephen King’s The Stand (1978) and Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven (2014). It attempts to explore the two narratives in terms of the strategies and mechanisms of survival as the two novelists recapture the survivors’ experiences and their struggle to survive the ongoing post-apocalyptic setting.

Kilbourn, R.J.A., & Empey, J.A. (Eds.). (2023). Feminist posthumanism in contemporary science fiction film and media. From annihilation to high life and beyond. Bloomsbury.

Feminist Posthumanism in Contemporary Science Fiction Film and Media strategically places itself within a consolidated and distinctly recognizable field by prioritizing science fiction as “the ideal venue for the exploration of [a] constellation of crucial themes” (1). These themes notably include HuManism and Anthropocentrism, along with their implications for the erasure or marginalization of ‘Woman’. Simultaneously, the book goes beyond mere placement within this established field, actively taking steps to advance and enrich the interconnections between feminist theory, posthumanist perspectives, and the expansive realm of science fiction. In doing so, it does not only acknowledge the centrality of science fiction in unraveling key societal themes, but it also contributes to the ongoing debate that seeks to bridge these critical frameworks for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary cultural narratives.

A Futuristic Living Room Experience with Robotic Serenity

Automation, environmental consciousness, and robots are dancing on our houses more and more. Imagine your living room filled with friendly robots, air-purifying trees that swing to the beat of the sun, and vacuum cleaners that scutter over the floor. The intelligent design of household robots, environmentally conscious marvels like smart trees, and even the robotic makeover of the common vacuum cleaner are shaping this future—it's no longer science fiction. Developing technology that works with us, not against us, is the key. Adopting this human-centered strategy will enable us to build dwellings that are full of life, where technology speaks softly rather than loudly, and where convenience and sustainability go hand in hand. The future house is a symphony just waiting to be created, so let's welcome the robots, make friends with the cleansing trees, and enjoy the dance of the vacuums.

Between Man and Machine: A Posthumanist Analysis of I, Robot

In Isaac Asimov’s groundbreaking anthology, I, Robot, the intricacies of human and robotic interactions take center stage, delving deep into questions of consciousness, right, morality. Characterized by Asimov’s unique blend of science fiction and philosophical pondering, the stories establish a framework to reflect on the evolving dynamics of an advanced technological society in space. Robots are capable to interact with human, to interpret complicate orders and act automatically, to help human with dull or dangerous works such as calculating and mining, even replacing the workers. Asimov also raised Three Laws of Robotics to make sure that all robots function in order. Through the lens of posthumanism, the anthology is examined for its portrayal of the blurred boundaries between human and artificial intelligences. Robots and human co-exist in the society. However, due to the limitation of “Three Laws of Robotics”, some logical contradictions inevitably appears and lead to the dysfunction of robots. As a result, I, Robot emerges as a poignant critique of humanity’s ethical and existential challenges in the face of rapid technological advancements. Building on existing research, this article attempts to forge a new perspective by reflecting on the broader implications of the artificial intelligence in Asimov’s works through the lens of post-humanism. It considers the existential questions of AI on a consciousness level, explores the egalitarian relationship between humans and machines from a rights perspective, and analyzes the concepts of “humanity” and “human-like” from a moral and ethical standpoint. It encourages readers to recognize that robots are not mere slaves to humans; instead, humans should view AI with equality and reverence towards the advancements of the era’s technology. Humanity should step away from anthropocentrism, not solely viewing humans as the measure of all things in this rapidly evolving era of AI, and properly handle the relationship between humans and non-humans. Currently, with rapid advancements in science and technology, the world of human-machine coexistence depicted by Isaac Asimov is increasingly becoming a reality. The emergence of artificial intelligences like AlphaGo and ChatGPT constantly reminds us of the advent of a post-human era. This article aims to examine the connections between AI and humans, discussing the dynamic interaction and mutual shaping between robots and human society. This article hopes to provide new thoughts and strategies for understanding and addressing the challenges brought by the age of artificial intelligence.

Writing Back Against Amazon’s Empire: Science Fiction, Corporate Storytelling, and the Dignity of the Workers’ Word

Since its founding in 1994 as an online bookstore, Amazon has “revolutionised” not only the market for literature but also expanded aggressively and transformatively in sectors including consumer retail, film and television, groceries, logistics, robotics, surveillance, AI, and web services. This growth and expansion is grounded in the firm’s internal and outward-facing rhetoric about its leading contribution to a brighter future, a narrative deeply inspired by the genre of science or speculative fiction (SF). But Amazon’s utopian vision is largely experienced as a dystopia by most of its rank-and-file workers, who labour under exploitative conditions of surveillance, robotization, and relentless managerial control. Hence our team inaugurated the Worker as Futurist project to support rank-and-file Amazon workers to read/watch SF stories to collectively understand their employer and its world, and also to write short, SF stories about “the world after Amazon.” In this preliminary report on the project, we explain the inspirations for the project and reflect on some of what we have learned from the participants, as well as some implications for the futures of platform workers generally.

Концепции герметизма и гностицизма в современной научно-фантастической литературе

The aim of the research is to clarify the features of the interpretation of the concepts of hermeticism and gnosticism in science fiction in the late 20th and 21st centuries devoted to the problems of trans- and posthumanism. The paper examines the features of the integration of gnostic and hermetic ideas into modern English-language science fiction. The scientific novelty of the research lies in considering the works of contemporary science fiction writers (G. Egan, R. Sawyer, N. Stephenson, W. Gibson, Ch. Stross) and in identifying the main variants of how gnostic and hermetic themes are developed in the writings of these writers. The author sees the influence of gnostic and hermetic ideas in science fiction works devoted to the topic of transhumanist changes in the form of interventions in the human body at the biochemical level, the themes of mind scanning and digital immortality, and the rational observer of the Universe. As a result, it is proved that gnostic and hermetic elements in contemporary science fiction devoted to the problems of trans- and posthumanism allow writers to include the problematic of hypothetical technologies for improving human nature into the context of a centuries-old religious tradition.

"To See With Eyes Unclouded": Nonhuman Selves and Semiosis in "Princess Mononoke"

Responding to a robust archive of ecocritical work on science fiction, this paper argues for fantasy as a genre that can offer powerful tools for ecological thinking. Focusing on Miyazaki Hayao’s 1997 film Princess Mononoke, I argue that fantasy’s portrayal of an animistic natural world provides a framework for recognizing and respecting the subjectivity of nonhuman persons. Drawing on Eduardo Viveiros de Castro’s concept of multinatural personhood, this paper analyzes the ways in which animistic fantasy allows Miyazaki to portray plants, animals, and other nonhumans as agential subjects that must be respected. Further, using Eduardo Kohn’s work on the materiality of semiosis to examine instances of cross-species communication in Princess Mononoke, I argue that the film’s expanded conceptions of personhood and language counter anthropocentric narratives of mastery by portraying human knowledge as necessarily limited and incomplete. In turn, the acknowledgement of epistemological limits encourages an ethical attitude which resonates with Michael Marder’s description of plant-thinking as a mode that acknowledges the importance of the unknown and the unknowable. Ultimately, this paper calls for a consideration of how modes of thought and aesthetic representation that have traditionally fallen outside the purview of the scientific can offer resources for imagining human-nonhuman relations.

Machine Learning in Metaverse Security: Current Solutions and Future Challenges

The Metaverse, positioned as the next frontier of the Internet, has the ambition to forge a virtual shared realm characterized by immersion, hyper-spatiotemporal dynamics, and self-sustainability. Recent technological strides in AI, Extended Reality, 6G, and blockchain propel the Metaverse closer to realization, gradually transforming it from science fiction into an imminent reality. Nevertheless, the extensive deployment of the Metaverse faces substantial obstacles, primarily stemming from its potential to infringe on privacy and be susceptible to security breaches, whether inherent in its underlying technologies or arising from the evolving digital landscape. Metaverse security provisioning is poised to confront various foundational challenges owing to its distinctive attributes, encompassing immersive realism, hyper-spatiotemporally, sustainability, and heterogeneity. This article undertakes a comprehensive study of the security and privacy challenges facing the Metaverse, leveraging machine learning models for this purpose. In particular, our focus centers on an innovative distributed Metaverse architecture characterized by interactions across 3D worlds. Subsequently, we conduct a thorough review of the existing cutting-edge measures designed for Metaverse systems while also delving into the discourse surrounding security and privacy threats. As we contemplate the future of Metaverse systems, we outline directions for open research pursuits in this evolving landscape.

Works of R. Edelbauer in Context of Contemporary Austrian Literature of Early 21st Century

This study explores the novels of contemporary Austrian writer Raphaela Edelbauer (Raphaela Edelbauer, b. 1990) “The Fluid Land” (Das flüssige Land, 2019), “DAVE” (DAVE, 2021), “The Incommensurables” (Die Inkommensurablen, 2023) in the context of contemporary Austrian literature of the early third millennium. The relevance of the research is driven by the necessity to comprehend the trends in Austrian literature during an era of global changes. It is revealed that, on one hand, the author continues the traditions of Austrian literature of the second half of the 20th century, particularly on a thematic level (Austrian identity, overcoming the past, the false idyll of provincial Austria, conflicts between fathers and children, etc.), while on the other hand, delving into pressing contemporary issues (transhumanism, artificial intelligence, etc.). The concept of fictionality is central to the analysis, exploring the ways and specifics of its implementation in the artistic text in alignment with the author’s communicative intentions. Special attention is given to Edelbauer’s individual style, the uniqueness of narrative organization in the examined genre varieties (parable novel, science fiction novel, historical novel), and the quest for a “personal” language. The novelty of this research lies in the fact that Edelbauer’s work, distinguished by prestigious literary awards in Austria and Germany, has not been a subject of study in Russian literary studies.

Demystifying the Metaverse: A Deep Dive into Characteristics, Enabling Technologies, Key Components, Surmounting Challenges, and Unveiling Boundless Applications

The metaverse, a concept evolving from science fiction to tangible digital reality, represents a complex, interconnected virtual space where individuals interact, collaborate, and create within immersive environments. This paper offers a comprehensive exploration of the metaverse, dissecting its core components, and characteristics and unraveling its transformative potential. Beginning with a definition of the metaverse, we delve into the enabling technologies that drive its existence, including extended reality, blockchain, decentralized infrastructure, etc. Through the analysis of key components such as virtual environments, avatars, and interoperability standards, we illuminate the foundational elements that facilitate connectivity and interaction within this digital realm. Additionally, we address the surmounting challenges facing the metaverse, ranging from technical hurdles like scalability and interoperability to societal concerns surrounding privacy and digital inclusion. Finally, we unveil the boundless applications of the metaverse across industries such as gaming, entertainment, education, healthcare, and commerce, showcasing its potential to revolutionize human engagement and innovation in virtual spaces. This deep dive aims to demystify the metaverse, providing insights into its evolution, challenges, and limitless possibilities for the future. INDEX TERMS Metaverse, Interoperability, Scalability, Data Security, Societal Limitations, Privacy Concerns, Accessibility Barriers, Ethical Considerations, Avatar, Extended reality, Blockchain.

Off-Centring the Real in Postcolonial Fiction

Postcolonial literature primarily emerged as a response to colonial representations of reality, so it comes as no surprise that a persistent dialogue with the real is one of its defining features. Since its initial attempt to question colonial constructions of the real and engage in self-representation, postcolonial literature has found “new angles at which to enter reality”. By exploring some of the commonly employed modes and genres in both early and contemporary postcolonial fiction, ranging from realism, magic(al) realism, historiographic metafiction, and science fiction to the Gothic, each illustrated by representative authors and works, this article intends to give a brief overview of postcolonial approaches to reality.

A Critical Study of Blade Runner from A Posthumanism Perspective

Posthumanism is the theory concerned with how the developments in technology and science has challenged our conception of what it means to be human. It looks for representations of a posthuman condition within literature, mostly in science fiction texts. The theory mapping the development of humanism into the present day and its relationship with technology and devoting in looking at the distinction between humans and animals and/or humans and machines. As one of the most notable artworks in the film industry, the Blade Runner is always regarded as a representative research object of posthumanism theory. This paper would mainly focus on the analysis of Blade Runner, to see how posthumanism is performed and distillated in this classical film.

Science fiction in military planning—Case allied command transformation and visions of warfare 2036

AbstractThis article focuses on using science fiction for military purposes to anticipate the future of warfare and presents a new tool for creating military science fiction. As technology is a significant driver in the future of warfare, science fiction has increased its popularity for military purposes. Armies and defense organizations have begun utilizing science fiction to anticipate and prepare for future wars. Examples can be found in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and NATO. Even though military sci‐fi is on the rise, there is a lack of a more profound analysis of the sci‐fi narratives of the military and its foundations. Allied Command Transformation's, (NATO's Strategic Warfare Development Command) report called Visions of Warfare 2036 (2016) exhibits an example of military‐based science fiction employed to anticipate and get prepared for the future of warfare. It includes 12 narratives of the future of warfare varying from gene‐manipulated soldiers to AI‐generated warfare. By analyzing the report qualitatively using the Atlas.ti program and manual methods, the basic elements of the stories were identified. One of the findings of the analysis was that the stories were somewhat similar to each other. To create more diverse military science fiction scenarios, a new tool: the Military Science Fiction Scenario Card was created. This tool can be used in practical work when thinking about the war of the future and in particular the role of technology in it. It can also be seen as a new tool in the field of futures research.

Robot pack mules remain science fiction for now.

The plot of the 2014 science-fiction movie Young Ones revolves around a robot pack mule based on the real-world BigDog.