by Tom Lombardo
Abstract
Science fiction is the most visible and influential form of futurist thinking in contemporary popular culture. As futurist narrative, science fiction resonates with the psychological disposition to give meaning and purpose to life through stories; it facilitates total person immersion in the future;and it stimulates all the major dimensions of future consciousness. As the “evolutionary mythology of the future,” science fiction facilitates the purposeful evolution of scientifically informed holistic future consciousness. Science fiction encompasses the future of everything and can stimulate cosmic consciousness. Though inspired by the modern scientific vision of reality, science fiction can be traced to ancient myth, with which it shares many features. The distinction between science fiction and fantasy is relative rather than absolute. Science fiction and futures studies exist on a continuum,overlapping, interactive, and mutually beneficial. Science fiction is evolutionary in that it continually builds upon past ideas within its heritage. The scientific theory of cosmic evolution provides the fundamental narrative framework for modern science fiction.