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Science Fiction is a genre of art that deals with concepts of mankind set against the extra ordinary or the fantastic.  Magic space travel time travel aliens teleportation mind control dimensional travel and other things that are all totally at odds with what mankind "knows" is scientifically possible are used in many way to display ideas of the artist.

Science Fiction is a genre of art that deals with concepts of mankind set against the extra ordinary or the fantastic.  Magic space travel time travel aliens teleportation mind control dimensional travel and other things that are all totally at odds with what mankind "knows" is scientifically possible are used in many way to display ideas of the artist.

Although it is commonly believed that modern science fiction began in 1818 with the novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, examples of science fiction writing are found in the 17th century with writers such as Kepler[1], John Wilkins[2], Athanasius Kircher[3], Cyrano de Bergerac[4], and Bishop Francis Godwin[5], with their works dealing with a protagonist traveling to the moon and exploring that area, and each work containing and based on speculations of the development of science and technology going on what was known about those subjects in the authors' days. However, it is the 16th century that what is indisputably a work of science fiction in the modern sense can be found. The work is Sir Thomas More's "Utopia"[6], first published in 1551, and is a work that even today is referenced in science fiction writings. It was the 19th century that saw the growth of science fiction writing with various works by Mary Shelley, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allen Poe, and with the novel The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. These works mainly were warnings to a brash mankind that some avenues of scientific investigation would be better left unexplored. The projects resulting from them, however much good they might promise, inevitably bring harm upon the investigator, those closest to him, and any number of innocent bystanders. This applies even to Jules Verne and his works (such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and From the Earth to the Moon), because the heroes in them almost always come to sad ends. However, Science Fiction as a literary work was known even to the Ancient Greeks with the works of "Lucian's True History" and the story of Icarus.  

Although it is commonly believed that modern science fiction began in 1818 with the novel ''[[Frankenstein]], or the Modern Prometheus'' by [[Mary Shelley]], examples of science fiction writing are found in the 17th century with writers such as Kepler<ref>http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Kepler.html</ref>, John Wilkins<ref>http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/wilkins/wilkins.html</ref>, Athanasius Kircher<ref>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/319046/Athanasius-Kircher</ref>, Cyrano de Bergerac<ref>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/148648/Savinien-Cyrano-de-Bergerac</ref>, and Bishop Francis Godwin<ref>http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/236952/Francis-Godwin</ref>, with their works dealing with a protagonist traveling to the moon and exploring that area, and each work containing and based on speculations of the development of [[science]] and [[technology]] going on what was known about those subjects in the authors' days. However, it is the 16th century that what is indisputably a work of science fiction in the modern sense can be found. The work is Sir Thomas More's ''"Utopia"''<ref>http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tmore.htm</ref>, first published in 1551, and is a work that even today is referenced in science fiction writings. It was the 19th century that saw the growth of science fiction writing with various works by [[Mary Shelley]], [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] and [[Edgar Allen Poe]], and with the novel ''[[The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde]]'' by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]. These works mainly were warnings to a brash mankind that some avenues of scientific investigation would be better left unexplored. The projects resulting from them, however much good they might promise, inevitably bring harm upon the investigator, those closest to him, and any number of innocent bystanders. This applies even to [[Jules Verne]] and his works (such as ''[[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]'' and ''[[From the Earth to the Moon]]''), because the heroes in them almost always come to sad ends. However, Science Fiction as a literary work was known even to the Ancient Greeks with the works of ''"Lucian's True History"'' and the story of Icarus.

Many of these works are also explorations of human psychology, or of philosophical questions regarding what man is. Stevenson's ''Jekyll and Hyde'', for example, investigates the problem of good and evil, and of the conflict between these forces within an individual.

Many of these works are also explorations of human psychology, or of philosophical questions regarding what man is. Stevenson's ''Jekyll and Hyde'', for example, investigates the problem of good and evil, and of the conflict between these forces within an individual.