ABSTRACT
Science fiction (SF) is prophetic, often predicting future visions that are never possible, as much as critiquing the past and present. Imaginative SF often predates modern technology and cities, and is much more than the narrow pop-culture definition given to stories about spaceships and intergalactic battles. SF authors speculate to conquer new territories of spatial possibilities and contribute to the cultural imagination. The physical scale of infrastructures in SF is often employed as a literary device, usually to enlarge the scope of the imagination and the intensity of the scenario. With the severity of climate change, mass migration and global housing crises, speculative visions should embrace ambitions of SF. According to the SF Encyclopedia, the claim that SF is a realistic, extrapolative literature is often supported by the citing of successful predictions, among which atomic power and the atom bomb are usually given pride of place.
