NCERT Book Class 12 English (kaleidoscope) Non Fiction 6 On Science Fiction

191/ON SCIENCE FICTION

6
On Science Fiction
Science
Isaac Asimov was a Russian born American author
and biochemist. He was a highly successful and
exceptionally prolific writer best known for his
works on science fiction and for his popular
science books.
Most of Asimov’s popularised science books
explain science concepts in a historical way,
going back as far as possible to a time when
the science in question was at its simplest
Isaac Asimov stage. He also lent his name to the magazine,
1920-1992 Asimov’s Science Fiction.

I
The Prescientific Universe
Foreword
To every history there is a prehistoric period. In the
case of science fiction, the prehistory lingers on even
today in some of the aspects of the field.
But what of that? Just as Ice Age art can hold up its
head with any form of art produced by sophisticated
modern man, so can the prehistoric aspects of
science fiction prove an accomplished literary form.

I have often made the point that true science fiction is a
creature of the last two centuries. Science fiction cannot
exist as a picture of the future unless, and until, people
get the idea that it is science and technology that produce
the future; that it is advances in science and technology