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TEACHING SCIENCE FICTION AS A LENS ON THE FUTURE
By Thomas Lombardo
Center for Future Consciousness
BEGINNING in September of 2020 I began a webinar series on Zoom on the evolutionary history of science fiction. Together with Tery Spataro, my administrative assistant for the Center for Future Consciousness, we have produced thus far sixteen webinars. Each webinar consists of an extensive slide show interspersed with discussion periods. All of the videos for these webinars are available for viewing on the Center for Future Consciousness Video School at: https://cfc-school.thinkific.com/. With still more webinars to come, at this point the series has covered ancient times up through the mid 1960s. The webinars are based on my multi-volume book series Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future.
The participating audience, which averages fifteen to twenty people per webinar, is a highly diverse and global group with individuals representing such areas as futures studies, science fiction, arts and humanities, science and engineering, philosophy, consciousness studies, literature, Eastern studies, and psychology. With roughly a dozen or more regular attendees, who have grown to know each other through the series, there is a good deal of active, ever-evolving dialogue among the participants as they have followed the rich and extensive history of science fiction outlined through the webinars.
Although the webinars have served a variety of educational purposes, including examining how science fiction evolved as a consequence of trends and lines of thinking in human society, and how science fiction influenced the growth of human consciousness through history, what I intend to highlight in this essay is how the “teaching of science fiction”—notably the evolving history of science fiction—in this webinar series has provided an enlightening “lens on the future.” Keep in mind though that this is just a sketch.
As one important revelation, which surprised many of the webinar attendees, thinking and writing about the future has a long history, extending back thousands of
years. As shown through the imaginative narratives of past centuries, humans have been speculating about the possibilities of the future since at least the time of the ancient Greeks. As the philosopher George Santayana stated, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it,” and a review of the evolving history of science fiction reveals a rich tapestry of diverse ideas on the future that futurists should be acquainted with. Fundamental themes and issues in futurist thinking, such as the impact of technology and science on society, the nature of utopian and dystopian futures, the future evolution of humans, and the possibility and nature of progress have a long history in science fiction. Attendees in the webinar series frequently found it both fascinating and educational to learn about and discuss among themselves the history of futures thinking as contained in the history of science fiction.
Connected to this first point, the deep and rich heritage of futurist thinking in science fiction reveals a great diversity of viewpoints on both possible and preferable futures. Teaching (the history of) science fiction expands the range or breadth of imagination regarding possible and preferable futures. One special strength of science fiction is that it does not present just one accepted or dominant perspective on the future but diverse narrative visions reflecting the diverse writers who write within the genre. Science fiction is a pluralistic arena of futurist thought.
Although there are no formal assignments in the webinar series, quite a few of the attendees, their interest provoked by my overviews of classic texts and novels, have been purchasing many of the books cited in the webinars. Without assigning readings, participants appear to be doing a lot of reading, or at the very least creating ever-growing to-do lists of books to read in the near future. Several people have been attending the series to inform and inspire them in their own writing and research.
By looking at both the deep history and the diversity of stories and points of view, attendees have been regularly afforded the opportunity to compare and discuss different futurist perspectives. They can also routinely ask, how much has our thinking really changed over the centuries and millennia? One attendee, a futurist from the Netherlands has often commented that his mind was filled with numerous questions and points to ponder by the end of each webinar.
Although hundreds of writers have been covered in the series so far, two writers to whom I have devoted entire webinars are H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon. Aside from their immense influence on the development of science fiction, Wells and Stapledon are important, especially for futurists, since both of them incorporated into the fictional writings a great deal of non-fictional futurist thinking. Wells and Stapledon examined both historical and contemporary trends, current issues and challenges of their time, and speculated on a variety of possible, probable, and preferable futures for humanity. Studying and discussing Wells and Stapledon in depth has afforded attendees the opportunity to see how two highly imaginative and educated minds within our recent history have synthesized in their writings futures studies thinking with science fiction narratives.
As one more “future consciousness raising” feature of this webinar series, science fiction contains and continues to evolve a highly stimulating visual dimension. The imagery of science fiction, encompassing art, cinema, graphics, photos, and book and magazine covers, which are profusely included in the slide shows, provides the attendees a powerful and rich mind-space for contemplating and imagining the future. Pictures are worth thousands of words, and the history of science fiction is filled with thousands of images.
All in all, the webinar series thus far has brought together and connected a great group of individuals for active and expansive discussions on history, science, philosophy, and the possibilities of the future. Science fiction cuts across various disciplines and this webinar series has drawn together a highly interdisciplinary and fascinating ensemble of educated people. For those who have attended, the series has raised and enriched their consciousness on the complex and extensive history of futurist thought, as embodied within the narratives and speculations of writers and thinkers of the past.
There are many stories about many different futures contained in the history of science fiction and the readers are invited to view online the recorded presentations on this ongoing saga of imagination, speculation, and thoughtful reflection at the Center for Future Consciousness Video School at https://cfc-school.thinkific.com/.
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