Science Fiction Research Task 2

Categories:

There are three types of Science fiction there is hard science Fiction which has a particular emphases of scientific detail and accuracy. There is Soft science fiction which has a focus on human characters and their relations and feelings, and while while doing this de-emphasizing the details of technological hardware and physical laws. And lastly there is Social Science fiction which is less concerned less with technology and space opera and more with sociological speculation about human society.

Hard Science Fiction:

One requirement for hard SF is procedural or intentional: a story should try to be accurate, logical, credible and rigorous in its use of current scientific and technical knowledge about which technology, phenomena, scenarios and situations that are practically and/or theoretically possible, and later discoveries do not necessarily invalidate the label. There is a degree of flexibility in how far from real science a story can stray before it leaves the genre of hard SF. Some Authors prefer focus on realistically depicting the worlds that such a technology might make possible. Therefore the definition of hard science fiction is less a matter of the absolute accuracy of the science content than of the rigor and consistency with which the various ideas and possibilities are worked out. One example of a Hard SF is Downbelow by c.j. Cherryh is an example of a very futuristic type novel involving space and realities like light speed travel.

Soft Science Fiction:

The term first appeared in the late 1970s and early 1980s and indicated SF based not on engineering or the "hard" sciences (for example, physics, astronomy, or chemistry) but on the "soft" sciences, and especially the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, psychology, political science. In another sense soft SF  is more concerned with character, society, or other speculative ideas and themes that are not centrally tied to scientific or engineering speculations. An example of Soft science is Back to the Future, this follows the Soft science fiction requirements becuase it has characters which have different personalities and the idea of traveling to different universes also ties into the idea of Soft SF not really being concerned with Scientific or engineering speculations.

Social Science fiction:

Social science fiction is a term used to describe a subgenre of science fiction concerned less with technology and space opera and more with sociological speculation about human society. In other words, it "absorbs and discusses anthropology", anthropology being the study of the complexity of different cultures around the world Social SF also speculates about human behavior and interactions. An example of social SF is the Time Machine by H.G. wells this example relates to the idea of human behavior and like Soft Sf it is not focused on detail and accuracy and this novel has aspects of time travel which also relate to Soft SF.