Writing Assignments

“To Boldly Go”

Space Exploration and Space Colonies

• How do the readings in this module connect to your ideas of what an explorer is, or should be?
• What do these readings say about the kind of person who will succeed in the future?
• What is there about the way life is led on Earth right now that will need to change for us to survive in the future?
• How can science and a knowledge of science be a tool for survival, or a tool for destruction?
• In “Down and Out on Ellfive Prime,” who’s the outlaw? What’s the purpose of an outlaw in a space colony? What’s the purpose of an outlaw on Earth?
• Is space exploration romantic? What about exploring the depths of the sea? or the South Pole or the Amazon Rainforest? What does it mean to “Sail Beyond the Sunset?”
• Read “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Connect that poem to any of the readings. In the poem, Ulysses is retired from adventuring. His exploring days are over. Are yours? Are all of ours?
• Is survival of the fittest a fair rule? What about when people make mistakes?
• What did you learn from any of these readings? About life? About people? About science? About SF?

“The Star Beast”

Animals and Aliens…What is Human?

• What is your definition of human? Does it include conscience? morality? soul? language? logic? Define your terms.
• Analyze one or more of the stories you read, and connect your analysis to some of our class discussion and some current events or issues, in terms of some criticism of how humans treat animals
• You are arguing in front of the Alien Judge. It is about to decide whether humans are ready to join the Galactic Civilization, whether we need another few billion years to grow up, or whether the planet should just be fumigated and allowed to start from scratch. State your case. Begin, “May it please the court, Your Alien Honor…”
• What are the similarities between the ways non-human aliens are regarded in stories, movies and tv (yes, you can include Mork, or even Alf) and the ways human strangers are regarded in our society today?
• When scientists try to understand nature, are they acting for their own benefit, or nature’s? Connect your answer to the readings and discussions.
• What is it about dolphins, anyway? Why do people get so goopy about them? Try to figure out why we love some animals (puppies, panthers) and hate others (squid, pigeons, that buzzing fly trying to eat your potato salad).
• What are the consequences of defining some people as not really human? The events of the latest news reports may be relevant to this question.
• One way to define a concept is to define its opposite. What would be a living thing that is definitely non-human? An alien we could never see as being like us?
• What did you learn from any of these stories? About life? About people? About science? About SF?
• Look at some ideas of aliens from some definite historical periods (the 50’s, the 70’s, the 90’s) and try to analyze what those ideas show about the periods themselves.

“I, Robot”

Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Life

• What are the issues involved in creating life? When we make an artificial human?
• Look up Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics.” Are these valuable laws for robots? For Humans? Are they sufficient? What would be your choice of laws?
• What’s wrong with hubris?
• Compare the stories and the film to what you think or have experienced in parent/child relationships. What does SF tell us about people’s feelings about this kind of relationship?
• Find some information, and explain, the Turing Test for Artificial Intelligence. Is this a sufficient test? Could you design a better one? What would it be like?
• What if the machines stop cooperating? or stop working? or decide they’d rather do without us?
• Is your body enhanced by technology in any way? Would you like it to be? When does a human become a cyborg, become a robot?
• You are now a robot. Write a letter to your creator.
• How would you feel if each country had its own Multivac as their political leader, and we all just trusted its divine wisdom to make decisions to run the world. Multivac seems to be incredibly logical, and rational and cannot be influenced by anger, sentimentality or any other emotion that can make us biased in making decisions. Do you think the world would be better off having Multivac leaders to make political decisions because humans do not seem to be able to agree what is right or wrong?

“Childhood’s End”

Coming to Faith and Coming of Age

• Analyze Anne McCaffrey’s “Weyr Search.” What’s the meaning of this story? It’s science fiction, but it reads a lot like fantasy, but what’s the point? Why did she write this story, and why try to make these points in this way
• How do the stories in this module portray children? Do these portrayals fit with your opinions and experiences of children? (From knowing them or being them).
• Is there a conflict between science and faith? Is it possible to be rational and religious at the same time?
• Did you ever learn anything that made you question all that you thought you had known? How did you react? How should people react to this kind of learning? Is it ever possible to keep an open mind?
• Do you see the world differently now than you did five years ago? ten years? twenty? What changed? What will change in your world view in the next five, or ten or twenty years?
• You are now yourself, but you are ten years old (or five or fifteen, you choose). Write a letter to your parents. What do you know that they should know, but don’t?
• Why is science fiction worth reading? Why is it especially worth reading for children or young people? What is the “golden age” of science fiction?
• You are an alien anthropologist. You are studying these strange Earthlings, but your race has no childhood…you just hatch from an egg as an adult. Write a report to your supervisory Throognet, explaining human childhood, especially child/adult relations.
• When there is a conflict between science and faith, SF generally says that science should win. But…do you have “faith” in science itself? Are there questions that science can not, and should not, answer?

“The Past Through Tomorrow”

Time Travel

• Analyze Terminator 2, in terms of the Grandfather Paradox and time travel, or the issues we looked at earlier in the course dealing with creators and creations.
• Why are stories of time travel so appealing? What is that intrigues you (and so many others) about traveling to another time.
• Compare stories of time travel to the future and time travel to the past. What makes these stories different from each other? What elements do they have in common?
• I have a time machine. It can not send people back or forward in time, but it can send written messages. I will give you one free sample, for a limited time only. You can send a your written message to whenever you like. Write a letter to people in the past, or the future. What would you like to know? What would you like them to know about our time?
• Think of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court or the more recent (and terrible) film Black Knight, or some other examples from film or literature. Why are some historical periods so very attractive to contemporary audiences? Name some of these periods, and discuss their attraction.
• What remains the same throughout history? You may have heard the French phrase, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose,” (the more things change, the more they remain the same). How true is this? Why?
• Think of historical characters or events that you’ve learned about. Try to pick some that are somehow important to you. Then do some web research. Find a link to some information about your chosen character or event. Imagine travelling to see that time or person. What does your imagination reveal about you?

“The New Romancers”

The New Wave, Cyberpunk, Gender and Race

• Analyze one of the stories you read for this Module. Compare it to some of the themes we’ve discussed before…or some of the earlier stories. How is the story from this Module different in style or theme or mood? What might be the reasons behind that difference?
• Who gets left out of Science Fiction? What would need to change to attract more women and people of color to SF? or to Science?.
• If you envision the future as dark and unpleasant, what does that say about the present?
• How have the social and technological changes in your own lifetime affected you? How could things change for the better?
• As we interface more smoothly with computers, do we lose any of our humanity? When do we cross the line?
• If you could choose to create your own offspring, designing the child in whatever way you wish, what choices would you make? What would you select? Or is it even a kind of choice you really want to have?
• Some people say that because the world has changed, stories need to change, too. They say we can’t tell stories in the old way (beginning, middle, end). TV, the internet, and the fast-paced modern life have fractured our consciousness. What do you think?