Writers of this class of science fiction have clearly in mind the assumptions that man can master the principles of this cause-and-effect universe and that such mastery will necessarily better the human lot.

On the other hand, the bright vision of the future has been directly stated in science fiction concerned with projecting ideal societies -- science fiction, of course, is related, if sometimes distantly, to that utopian literature optimistic about science, literature whose period of greatest vigor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries produced Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward and H. G. Wells's A Modern Utopia.

In Arthur Clarke's Childhood's End ( 1953 ), though written after the present flood of dystopias began, we can see the bright vision of science fiction clearly defined.

Considering then the optimism which has permeated science fiction for so long, what is really remarkable is that during the last twelve years many science-fiction writers have turned about and attacked their own cherished vision of the future, have attacked the Childhood's End kind of faith that science and technology will inevitably better the human condition.

Because of the means of publication -- science-fiction magazines and cheap paperbacks -- and because dystopian science fiction is still appearing in quantity the full range and extent of this phenomenon can hardly be known, though one fact is evident: the science-fiction imagination has been immensely fertile in its extrapolations.

There is, of course, nothing new about dystopias, for they belong to a literary tradition which, including also the closely related satiric utopias, stretches from at least as far back as the eighteenth century and Swift's Gulliver's Travels to the twentieth century and Zamiatin's We, Capek's War With The Newts, Huxley's Brave New World, E. M. Forster's `` The Machine Stops '', C. S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength, and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and which in science fiction is represented before the present deluge as early as Wells's trilogy, The Time Machine, `` A Story Of The Days To Come '', and When The Sleeper Wakes, and as recently as Jack Williamson's `` With Folded Hands '' ( 1947 ), the classic story of men replaced by their own robots.

Not all recent science fiction, however, is dystopian, for the optimistic strain is still very much alive in Mission Of Gravity and Childhood's End, as we have seen, as well as in many other recent popular novels and stories like Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud ( 1957 ) ; ;

and among works of dystopian science fiction, not all provide intelligent criticism and very few have much merit as literature -- but then real quality has always been scarce in science fiction.

`` The human ego being what it is '', I put in, `` science fiction has always assumed that the creatures on the planets of a thousand larger solar systems than ours must look like gigantic tube-nosed fruit bats.

It is not through space nor time that the time machine most approved by science fiction must travel for a visit to the permanent prehistoric past, or the ever-existent past-fantasy future.

Significantly, Huxley also worked for a time in the 1920s at the technologically advanced Brunner and Mond chemical plant in Billingham, Teesside, and the most recent introduction to his famous science fiction novel Brave New World ( 1932 ) states that this experience of " an ordered universe in a world of planless incoherence " was one source for the novel.

Until recently, androids have largely remained within the domain of science fiction, frequently seen in film and television.

The term " droid ", coined by George Lucas for the original Star Wars film and now used widely within science fiction, originated as an abridgment of " android ", but has been used by Lucas and others to mean any robot, including distinctly non-human form machines like R2-D2.

" The term made an impact into English pulp science fiction starting from Jack Williamson's The Cometeers ( 1936 ) and the distinction between mechanical robots and fleshy androids was popularized by Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future ( 1940 – 1944 ).

For example, Heinlein was the " dean of science fiction writers " because he was " the scientist " of science fiction.

* Frank Herbert, critically acclaimed, science fiction author of the best-selling science fiction novel of all time: Dune

Alfred Elton van Vogt ( April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000 ) was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the " Golden Age " of the genre.

On the other hand, when science fiction author Philip K. Dick was asked which science fiction writers had influenced his work the most, he replied:

* Chanakya ( c. 350-c. 275 BCE ), author of Arthashastra, professor ( acharya ) of political science at the Takshashila University

Jonathan Rosenberg, author / artist of the humorous science fiction webcomic Scenes from a Multiverse, references an ansible powered by a quantum-entangled ferret in the 2012-Jun-25 edition of the comic.

Ann Druyan ( born June 13, 1949 ) is an American author and producer specializing in productions about cosmology and popular science.

NASA's Advanced Automation for Space Missions study directly inspired the science fiction novel Code of the Lifemaker ( 1983 ) by author James P. Hogan.

Clark Ashton Smith ( 13 January 1893 – 14 August 1961 ) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of fantasy, horror and science fiction short stories.

* Ceres Storm, a 2000 science fiction novel by American author David Herter

Carl Edward Sagan (; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996 ) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences.

Colin Kapp ( 1928 – 3 August 2007 ) was a British science fiction author.

Cordwainer Smith – pronounced CORDwainer – was the pseudonym used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger ( July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966 ) for his science fiction works.

The term " cyberspace " was first used by the cyberpunk science fiction author William Gibson, though the concept was described somewhat earlier, for example in the Vernor Vinge short story " True Names ," and even earlier in John M. Ford's novel, Web of Angels.

The word " cyberspace " ( from cybernetics and space ) was coined by science fiction novelist and seminal cyberpunk author William Gibson in his 1982 story " Burning Chrome " and popularized by his 1984 novel Neuromancer.

In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth, a Lutheran, is also the author of 3: 16 Bible Texts Illuminated, in which he examines the Bible by a process of systematic sampling, namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book.

* 1954 – Emma Bull, American science fiction and fantasy author

Dan Simmons ( born April 4, 1948 ) is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium / Olympos cycle.

Eventually the term " Finagle's law " was popularized by science fiction author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners ; this " Belter " culture professed a religion and / or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy.

* 2012 – Jaroslav Velinský, Czech science fiction and detective author ( b. 1932 )

* 1945 – William Sleator, American science fiction author

* 1920 – Daniel F. Galouye, science fiction author ( d. 1976 )

* Cartesian diver, a science experiment

A Cartesian diver or Cartesian devil is a classic science experiment, named for René Descartes, which demonstrates the principle of buoyancy ( Archimedes ’ principle ) and the ideal gas law.

* The Professor-U. S. physicist Professor Julius Sumner Miller, a veteran of the Mickey Mouse Club ( where he was known as Professor Wonderful ), provided science lessons on such things as thermal expansion and the cartesian diver.

The science fiction film The Abyss ( 1989 ) postulated an experimental liquid breathing system, in which the use of highly oxygenated Fluorinert would enable a diver to descend to great depths.

He had already shown a strong inclination for natural science, and this had been fostered by his intimacy with a " self-taught philosopher, astronomer and mathematician ," as Sir Walter Scott called him, of great local fame — James Veitch of Inchbonny — a man who was particularly skillful in making telescopes.

The Economic and Social Research Institute, a social science research institute, is based on Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2.

Sir Alec John Jeffreys, FRS ( born 9 January 1950 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England ) is a British geneticist, who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling which are now used all over the world in forensic science to assist police detective work, and also to resolve paternity and immigration disputes.

The method followed by its illustrious author Sir Newton ... spread the light of mathematics on a science which up to then had remained in the darkness of conjectures and hypotheses.

Sir Robert Tony Watson CMG ( born March 21, 1948 ) is a British scientist who has worked on atmospheric science issues including ozone depletion, global warming and paleoclimatology since the 1980s.

His early skill in, and Genius for this noble science recommended him, when about 18 years of age, to the favour and esteem of his great master and predecessor, Sir Christopher Wren, under whom, during his life, and for himself since his death, he was concerned in the erecting more Publick ( sic ) Edifices, than any one life, among the moderns at least, can boast of.

I realized then that anthropology, as presented by Sir James Frazer, is a great science, worthy of as much devotion as any of her elder and more exact studies and I became bound to the service of Frazerian anthropology.

One of its owners was Sir Hugh Platt ( 1552 – 1608 ), author of books on gardening and practical science.

While the Scottish Enlightenment is considered to have concluded toward the end of the 18th century, disproportionately large Scottish contributions to British science and letters continued for another fifty years or more, thanks to such figures as James Hutton, James Watt, William Murdoch, James Clerk Maxwell, Lord Kelvin and Sir Walter Scott.

In 1998 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour, a UK national honour bestowed for outstanding achievement in the arts, literature, music, science, politics, industry or religion ( fellow recipients included in 2011 Douglas Hurd, former British Foreign Secretary, Norman Tebbit, former Secretary of State of Employment under Margaret Thatcher, and former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major ).

* 1961: After more than a decade of funding difficulties, eminent science and business personalities ( including Sir Julian Huxley ) decide to set up a complementary fund ( the World Wildlife Fund ) to focus on fund raising, public relations, and increasing public support for nature conservation

* Sir John Maddox ( 1925 – 2009 ), science writer

The printed and extensively annotated catalogue of this donation is entitled " Bibliotheca Osleriana: a catalogue of books illustrating the history of medicine and science, collected, arranged and annotated by Sir William Osler, Bt.

He soon acquired a good knowledge of the Chinese language, on which he subsequently contributed interesting articles to the Quarterly Review ; and the account of the embassy published by Sir George Staunton records many of Barrow's valuable contributions to literature and science connected with China.

Sir John Russell was a director of Rothamsted and his book emphasises the role of Rothamsted in the development of agricultural science in Britain.

Sir Thomas Browne ( 19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682 ) was an English author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including medicine, religion, science and the esoteric.

* Clarke's three laws ( Sir Arthur Clarke's observations about science, prediction and magic )

Sir John Edward Lennard-Jones Sir John Edward Lennard-Jones KBE, FRS ( 27 October 1894 – 1 November 1954 ) was a mathematician who was a professor of theoretical physics at Bristol University, and then of theoretical science at Cambridge University.

* 20 – Sir Fred Hoyle, 86, British astronomer and science fiction writer.

In November 1667, Lower worked with Sir Edmund King, another student of Willis, to transfuse sheep's blood into a man who was mentally ill. Lower was interested in advancing science but also believed the man could be helped, either by the infusion of fresh blood or by the removal of old blood.

Sir Adams Archibald studied science and medicine for a few years, subsequently articled in law, and was called to the Nova Scotia bar in January 1839.

Acharya Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, CSI, CIE, FRS ( Jôgodish Chôndro Boshu ; 30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937 ) was an Indian Bengali polymath: a physicist, biologist, botanist, archaeologist, as well as an early writer of science fiction.

Places and things named in honour of Sir Mark Oliphant include: the Oliphant Building at the Australian National University ; the Mark Oliphant Conservation Park ; a South Australian high schools science competition ; the Oliphant Wing of the Physics Building at the University of Adelaide ; the Mark Oliphant Building, Bedford Park, and a new high school located in the new area, Munno Para West, South Australia.

In Great Britain, Lord Chancellor Sir Francis Bacon had a formative effect on science policy with his identification of " experiments of .. light, more penetrating into nature what others know ", which today we call the crucial experiment.