Professor Eric S. Rabkin at the University of Michigan explains the two genres of literature and how they exist in the media. With science fiction comes future fantasy, and the difference is not always clear.

Science fiction is how science and technology is applied in our modern world, while future fantasy is a dystopian future caused by science and technology that exists as magic, and are unexplained like magic. Professor Rabkin discusses how fantasy helps us in our social lives, giving us particular skills that we can learn to use ourselves. Science fiction also allows the reader to question the purpose of technology, and its affect on us.

“No matter how much we want to try to change fate, if we attempt to, we might make it worse,” so fantasy cannot always tell us if the future will be better, whereas science fiction can tell us the consequences of our own technology.

Image provided by: story collider

Sourced: University of Michigan

Curated: @KatherineNader, an online editor at Arbitrage Magazine, is the author of The Deadly Mark. She is a student of Biology, English, and Professional Writing at the University of Toronto.