ABSTRACT
If utopian tales bring children closer to their wishes and dreams by projecting ideal distant lands, then science fiction stories bring them closer to their wishes by paradoxically transporting them to the future. Predicated on fact and credibility, science fiction introduces weird characters and places to alienate young readers so that they can learn to accept difference and to think about alternatives to the present by looking at the future. Of course, not all science fiction does this. Much science fiction simply rejoices in technology and natural sciences and maintains that the world will become a better place through marvelous machines that conquer nature and space. Then there is the science fiction of gloom that prophesies doom, that suggests we will become slaves of machines. Indeed, many science fiction stories and books illustrate how machines will take over the world and we will lose our souls. In contrast, a “green” science fiction reveals how we can reutilize machines to prevent the further destruction of nature and to bring about peace between warring nations and planets. All science fiction contains inevitable wars and clashes because the world's future appears to depend on who will control science.
