

Ask HN:Why should I read science fiction? - ekm2

I read a lot:Good books as well as trash.However, the older I get the more I need to justify the content of my library.So,what would be a good reason to read(or continue reading) science fiction?
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dhruvmittal
Because it's fun. Seriously, if you don't like it, don't read it. If you do
like it, that's all the justification you should need.

You don't need to justify your library to anyone but yourself.

Not every book needs to teach you some fundamental life lesson for it to be
worth your time. Thinking like that is a quick and easy way to burning
yourself out. Let your hair down and relax with it. Take it to bed with you
and loose your imaginations. Have fun they way you want to.

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bigiain
Because you enjoy it.

I find the idea that you need some other "justification", or that some
justification might lead you to continue to read science fiction when you
don't enjoy it – to be a "wait, what?" kind of question.

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atmosx
"There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other,
that you can boast about it."

― Bertrand Russell

\--

If you don't enjoy science fiction then don't read it. If you are a looking
for a reason to do so, then stop - it's wrong.

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daemonk
Science fiction allows you to view a situation without the biases of your
upbringing, culture, or anecdotal experience. It can take a controversial
scenario and place it in a foreign environment but still allow you to draw
enough analogs to relate it back to the real scenario.

~~~
Gravityloss
You should definitely read translated literature from foreign cultures.

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sssk
Because Sci-Fiction throws a lot of insight into the future, into a life
influenced by different dimensions, into a life with various social and
economic alternatives. Over the years many innovations have been influenced by
Sci-Fi novels. Incidents from books like 1984 have come totally true in
various countries.

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semasad
I think science fiction is not only fantasy plus science, I think, this type
of books is an open door to the future, is the type of books that open your
mind to think about the future. Also, when you read old science fiction books,
you realize you are in the future, this is the future.

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Gravityloss
You can feel kinship with the writer. It can be like meeting and talking with
some really smart and imaginative and funny person - the likes you might not
have around where you are right now in your life.

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6d0debc071
From a productivity based perspective: The older you get the more it would
seem to make sense to use the knowledge you have, rather than to invest
heavily in acquiring new knowledge. So what you read would become less
important.

#

As for why read sci-fi? Well, there's a lot of bad sci-fi out there. At its
best it represents interesting explorations of the effects that changes in
science, context, and or very other social structures can have when they
interact with human societies - and in that much perhaps tells us something
about ourselves and where we might be going. Accelerando probably falls into
that category, Blindsight would be another, Dune.

