In times such as these, it becomes clear that science fiction could play a big role in ‘enlightening’ people. Instead of mis/disinformation, grievance, and even nihilism, their minds could be filled with possibilities and imagined futures. And it doesn’t have to be all Pollyanna optimism. SF can provide powerful warnings of dystopian outcomes too.
Personal stories are part of this. Most SF readers, and virtually all writers, can relate the significant impact on their young selves of such literature. Personal TASAT, so to speak. My own major influences were H.G. Wells, Asimov (FOUNDATION), Heinlein, and William Gibson. In the case of Asimov, SF led me to science fact, such as his Neutrino book.
Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four were staples of high school education half a century ago; I wonder if that’s still true today.
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman credits his interest in economics to Foundation:
My Book – the one that has stayed with me for four-and-a-half decades – is Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy, written when Asimov was barely out of his teens himself. I didn’t grow up wanting to be a square-jawed individualist or join a heroic quest; I grew up wanting to be Hari Seldon, using my understanding of the mathematics of human behaviour to save civilisation.
OK, economics is a pretty poor substitute; I don’t expect to be making recorded appearances in the Time Vault a century or two from now. But I tried.
My grade school library’s copy of Robert Heinlein’s Have Spacesuit – Will Travel stood out on the shelf, taller and thicker than neighboring books. Their hardcover copy had the iconic illustration of the chiseled hero in the red-tinted spacesuit.
It’s considered YA, but in 4th grade it felt very adult. There were many new words to interpret from context, explanations of mechanical and scientific concepts, and moments of palpable horror.
I was engrossed by the reasoning and problem-solving of teenage Kip and Peewee, his smack-talking 11-year-old genius companion.
It introduced me to several concepts I’ve seen again and again over the years: like flip-turn deceleration burns, touching helmets to speak in vacuum, instantaneous travel via folding space, and intergalactic tribunals.
I still haven’t read everything by Heinlein, but HSS-WT sparked a lifelong interest in science fiction.