this post was submitted on 15 May 2026
6 points (59.4% liked)

Ask Lemmy

39573 readers
1626 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] sockenklaus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I haven't watched newer works in the Star Wars franchise but in my opinion Star Wars doesn't qualify as science fiction but is more like a space fantasy story.

Science fiction is more like a thought experiment: What would happen if society or technology would develop in this or that way? That's what Star Trek is doing for the most part (at least the older installments).

Edit: To be clear: I am not saying, Star Wars is bad. It is obviously highly regarded for a good reason. Im just saying it's not science fiction.

[–] 3abas@lemmy.world 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Right, intelligent aliens communicating, governing, trading, and fighting alongside humans in interstellar wars with faster-than-light travel, space lasers, artificial intelligence, autonomous robots, planet-destroying superweapons, cybernetics, cloning, advanced prosthetics, and energy weapons does not qualify as science fiction because it also has mysticism, prophecy, telekinesis, and sword fights...

[–] sockenklaus@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 hours ago

Nah that's not my point at all. I'm not saying all that space, alien and tech stuff doesn't qualify as sci-fi because of the mysticism/prophecy/magic. My point is that you could probably tell Star Wars' tale just as well without all those aspects in a traditional fantasy setting for example. Sci-fi, in my opinion, utilizes science or technology to start thought experiments and tell stories that wouldn't be possible.

Take for example "Do Androids dream of electric sheep?" (the book Bladerunner is based on): The story tackles the ethical question at which point an artificial lifeform can be considered a person and should be treated as such. This is classic sci-fi: Take a fictional advanced technology and discuss the ethical or societal problems that may result from this technology.

This is something at least classic Star Trek does quite often while most of Star Wars' technology could very well be replaced by fantasy elements without the underlying story being fundamentally different.