Changes

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, [[Herbert George Wells]] and [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] sounded similar dark themes in their work. But their warnings were less about someone investigating something he shouldn't and more about possible dire futures for human civilization and the planet itself. Wells' ''[[The Time Machine]]'' is the best illustration of this concept. Wells also was among the first to speculate on [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] attacks upon the [[earth]], with his classic ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898).

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, [[Herbert George Wells]] and [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] sounded similar dark themes in their work. But their warnings were less about someone investigating something he shouldn't and more about possible dire futures for human civilization and the planet itself. Wells' ''[[The Time Machine]]'' is the best illustration of this concept. Wells also was among the first to speculate on [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] attacks upon the [[earth]], with his classic ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898).

The twentieth century saw science fiction become far less serious in its purpose. The works of [[Hugo Gernsback]] and others were intended merely to entertain and amuse--in other words, to help the reader escape an unpleasant reality. But reality would soon reimpose itself on the imaginations of science-fiction writers. The nuclear attack on the [[Japan|Japanese]] cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]] inspired many writers to create [[monster|monsters]] ([[Godzilla]], [[Rodan]], ''etc.'') of tremendous size and destructive power comparable to the power of [[nuclear weapon]]s. Other writers speculated anew on the harms that can result from playing fast and loose with dangerous new forces--in this case, [[Atoms|atomic]] [[radiation]]. The deepening mutual scorn in which the [[United States of America]] and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] held one another, originally inspired works featuring [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] expeditionary forces coming to the earth to make war upon humanity (or occasionally to catch humanity in the crossfire). Later writers, editors, and producers, like [[Gene Roddenberry]] (of [[Star Trek]] fame), would speculate that humanity would expand on new voyages of discovery, only to end up fighting with enemies that looked and behaved very similarly to whatever power was foreign to the writer's nation-state of origin. This era would also see the writing of the ''[[Dune (novel series)|Dune]]'' series of novels by [[Frank Herbert]], in which humanity would expand throughout a vast region of the universe, only to divide into interstellar and trans-galactic versions of the civilizations then extant in the 1960's, and even have conflicts over natural resources that closely mirror the struggle for control of such resources, chiefly [[petroleum]], today.

The twentieth century saw science fiction become far less serious in its purpose. The works of [[Hugo Gernsback]] and others were intended merely to entertain and amuse--in other words, to help the reader escape an unpleasant reality. But reality would soon reimpose itself on the imaginations of science-fiction writers. The nuclear attack on the [[Japan|Japanese]] cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]] inspired many writers to create [[monster|monsters]] ([[Godzilla]], [[Rodan]], ''etc.'') of tremendous size and destructive power comparable to the power of [[nuclear weapon]]s. Other writers speculated anew on the harms that can result from playing fast and loose with dangerous new forces--in this case, [[Atoms|atomic]] [[radiation]]. The deepening mutual scorn in which the [[United States of America]] and the [[Union of Soviet Socialist Republics]] held one another, originally inspired works featuring [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] expeditionary forces coming to the earth to make war upon humanity (or occasionally to catch humanity in the crossfire). Later writers, editors, and producers, like [[Gene Roddenberry]] (of [[Star Trek]] fame), would speculate that humanity would expand on new voyages of discovery, only to end up fighting with enemies that looked and behaved very similarly to whatever power was foreign to the writer's nation-state of origin. This era would also see the writing of the ''[[Dune (novel series)|Dune]]'' series of novels by [[Frank Herbert]], in which humanity would expand throughout a vast region of the universe, only to divide into interstellar and trans-galactic versions of the civilizations then extant in the 1960's, and even have conflicts over natural resources that closely mirror the struggle for control of such resources, chiefly [[petroleum]], today.