Do science fiction have a prophetic function?
Liu Cixin and Wang Jinkang talk to primary and secondary school students
Does sci-fi have a prophetic function? Will sci-fi technology like "hibernation" in "The Wandering Earth" affect the direction of human development? How do excellent science fiction works give readers a strong sense of substitution? Yesterday, a dialogue between science fiction masters and middle school students was staged at the China Science Fiction Convention. As an important part of the China Science Fiction Convention, the "Capital Youth Science Fiction Carnival" was held in Shougang Park and Beijing Science Center, and the "Master Dialogue" session invited famous science fiction writers Liu Cixin and Wang Jinkang to conduct science fiction dialogues with the winners of the 42nd Beijing Youth Science and Technology Innovation Competition and more than <> middle school students.
Chinese athletes reached the Olympic 100-meter trapeze final, artificial intelligence defeated the top human Go players... These plots all appeared in science fiction many years ago. Do science fiction really have a prophetic function? For this question, Wang Jinkang believes that the plot in his works has become reality, and some are coincidences, "but it is inevitable to conform to scientific laws, such as the moon base I wrote about, we will eventually see that day." Liu Cixin added that sometimes reality is one step ahead of science fiction, such as when his novel "Earth Fire" was written and published, in fact, similar technology in the world was much more advanced than that written in the novel, but it was not applied on a large scale.
Liang Jiaying, Class 6 of Year 2 at Jingshan School, showed the reading tabloids she wrote after reading "The Wandering Earth" and "Song of Life". She asked Liu Cixin worriedly: "In the context of the apocalypse, do people really lose all their sensibility?" Liu Cixin's answer is that if the apocalypse really comes, mankind may fall into an irrational state, but it may also organize in advance to face the disaster together. Although this will face great losses, it will not be like "The Wandering Earth", where human beings can face great disasters with dignity.
Liu Simo, a sophomore at Bayi School, is a fan of Liu Cixin's books. He asked the writer he admired: How is the strong sense of substitution that his work brings to the reader shaped? On this question, "Da Liu" sincerely shared his experience: "Science fiction must be readable, and it must have the realism you say; If science fiction movies want to look good, they must be shot with a sense of history in order to bring out a feeling of being far from reality. It's not easy to write and create that feeling, and for me too, I can only try to find out from limited experience. ”
Text/Reporter Lei Jia
Photo by reporter Yuan Yi
(Beijing Youth Daily)