Science fiction stories and movies rank among some of the most popular and influential creative works we encounter. Fantastic tales like Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the Star Wars films have captured the imaginations of people around the world while family films such as Back to the Future have entertained many others. From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the HBO television series West World, science fiction works force us to contemplate what it means to be human. Others (think dystopian works such as George Orwell’s 1984, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and the Disney Pixar movie Wall-E) attempt to warn us by showing us bleak worlds of poverty, pollution, or oppression, often the result of technology run amok.

This WordPress site was created by students of Dr. Ethan Segal’s Integrated Arts and Humanities class on Science Fiction, Technology, and the Future during Spring 2024 in coordination with Ashley Cerku, Graduate Assistant in the Lab for the Education in and Advancement of Digital Research (LEADR) at Michigan State University.