Soft science fiction, or soft SF, is a type of science fiction that has two main meanings. It differs from hard science fiction, which focuses on real scientific details. Soft science fiction often explores subjects like psychology, political science, and sociology, which are called "soft" sciences. It can also mean stories that focus more on people's feelings and relationships than on scientific accuracy.

Stories in soft science fiction usually pay more attention to imaginary societies and how characters interact, rather than explaining realistic scientific or engineering ideas. The term "soft science fiction" was first used in the late 1970s by an Australian scholar named Peter Nicholls.

Definition

In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Peter Nicholls explains that "soft SF" is a term that is not clearly defined. The difference between hard and soft SF is not always clear. There are no clear or agreed-upon lines between hard and soft SF, so there is no single standard for how "hard" or "soft" science fiction should be judged. Some readers might think that any story that includes things that are not possible or likely, like faster-than-light travel or powers beyond normal abilities, is considered "soft SF." Others might believe that focusing more on characters or how technology affects society, even if it's possible or likely, moves away from the science and technology topics that they think should be the main focus of hard SF. Because there are no clear rules for what makes science fiction "hard" or "soft," "soft science fiction" does not describe a specific type of science fiction but instead refers to a general tendency or quality. It is one end of a scale, with "hard science fiction" at the other end.

In Brave New Words, subtitled The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, soft science fiction is described in two ways. The first definition says that soft science fiction is stories that mainly focus on the social sciences, like psychology or sociology, rather than the natural sciences, like physics or biology. The second definition describes soft science fiction as stories where science is not a major part of the plot.

Etymology

The term "soft science fiction" was created as the opposite of the earlier term "hard science fiction."

The first known use of the term appears in "1975: The Year in Science Fiction" by Peter Nicholls, published in Nebula Award Stories 11 (1976). He wrote, "The same list reveals that a shift from hard sf (chemistry, physics, astronomy, technology) to soft sf (psychology, biology, anthropology, sociology, and even linguistics) had already started and is continuing more strongly than ever."

History

Poul Anderson, in Ideas for SF Writers (Sep 1998), said H.G. Wells was an example of soft science fiction. He focused more on characters, their feelings, and how they interacted, rather than on the science or technology behind stories like The Invisible Man or The Time Machine. Jeffrey Wallmann noted that soft science fiction began with the gothic fiction of Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley, which often included mysterious or scary themes.

Carol McGuirk, in Fiction 2000 (1992), explained that the "soft school" of science fiction was popular in the 1950s, during the Cold War and as more people became interested in science fiction. Early writers of soft science fiction included Alfred Bester, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury, and James Blish. These authors made a major change from the hard science fiction tradition by focusing more on characters and their development rather than on scientific ideas. McGuirk called Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 book The Left Hand of Darkness an example of soft science fiction. The New Wave movement in science fiction began in the 1960s and 1970s, growing from soft science fiction. By the 1980s, the conte cruel—a type of story that often showed harsh or difficult themes—became common in soft science fiction. Cyberpunk, a style of science fiction that focused on technology and society, also began in the 1980s from soft science fiction.

McGuirk identified two types of soft science fiction: "Humanist science fiction," which focuses on people and how they influence change or advance society, often exploring ideas about what it means to be human; and "Science fiction noir," which highlights the darker sides of human nature, often set in bleak or dystopian worlds.

Examples

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four can be described as soft science fiction because it focuses on how society and relationships change when a political group uses technology harshly. Even though the book inspired many ideas found in later science fiction, including hard science fiction, such as mind control and surveillance, its writing style is very realistic. The story's themes and tone are more similar to a spy novel or political thriller than to typical science fiction.

Karel Čapek's 1920 play R.U.R., which introduced the word "robot" (replacing earlier terms like "automaton"), explores themes such as free will, a society with no scarcity of resources, robot uprisings, and post-apocalyptic settings. The play, titled A Fantastic Melodrama, describes only a general method for creating artificial workers from living tissue. Because of this, it can be compared to social comedy or fantasy stories.

George S. Elrick, in Science Fiction Handbook for Readers and Writers (1978), used Brian Aldiss's 1959 short story collection The Canopy of Time (also known as Galaxies Like Grains of Sand in the United States) as an example of soft science fiction based on the soft sciences.

Frank Herbert's Dune series is a major example of soft science fiction. In the books, Herbert focused less on the details of futuristic technology and more on the political struggles of humanity.

Linguistic relativity, also called the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, is the idea that language affects how people think and see the world. This concept appears in some soft science fiction works, such as Jack Vance's The Languages of Pao (1958) and Samuel R. Delany's Babel-17 (1966). In these stories, artificial languages are used to control or change individuals and societies. Other works that explore science fictional linguistics include Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed (1974), the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok" (1991), Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992), C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner books (1994–), and the film Arrival (2016).

Films based on soft science fiction often use Earth-like physics in space to make scenes more familiar or exciting for viewers. Examples of these creative choices include:

• Gravity existing without the use of artificial systems.
• Radio communication happening instantly, without delays caused by the speed of light.
• Spaceships or explosions making sound in the vacuum of space.
• Spaceships changing direction without visible propulsion.
• Spaceship crew members surviving extreme forces from rapid movements or launches without visible effort.
• Astronauts freezing or suffering frostbite immediately after being exposed to space.
• Spaceships stopping or falling when engines fail, rather than continuing in their current path due to inertia.

Films based on hard science fiction try to avoid these creative choices.

Representative works

Organized by the year they were published.

• H. G. Wells, The Time Machine (1895) and The Invisible Man (1897)
• Miles J. Breuer, "The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930)
• Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles (1950, short story collection)
• James Blish, "Surface Tension" (1952)
• Murray Leinster, "Exploration Team" (1956)
• Brian Aldiss, The Canopy of Time (1959, short story collection)
• Daniel Keyes, "Flowers for Algernon" (1959)
• Sakyo Komatsu, "Shigatsu Juyokkakan" (1974)

• Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)
• Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man (1953)
• Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
• Ted Sturgeon, More Than Human (1953)
• Jack Vance, The Languages of Pao (1958)
• Philip K. Dick, Time Out of Joint (1959) and Ubik (1969)
• Walter M. Miller, Jr., A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
• Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
• Pierre Boulle, Monkey Planet (1963)
• Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)
• Samuel R. Delany, Babel-17 (1966)
• Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Dispossessed (1974)
• Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside (1972)
• Frederik Pohl, Man Plus (1976)
• Michael Swanwick, In the Drift (1984)
• Kim Stanley Robinson, The Wild Shore (1984), (Book 1 of the Three Californias Trilogy)
• Storm Constantine, The Wraeththu Chronicles (1987)
• David Brin, The Postman (1985)
• Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)
• Ben H. Winters, The Last Policeman (2012)

In the sense of a basis in the soft sciences:

• Episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–1994), such as the fifth season's "Darmok" (S5E02; September 30, 1991), use ideas from the soft sciences, such as the study of languages.

Some prime examples of soft science fiction on film and television include:

• The Stargate franchise
• The Star Trek franchise
• The Star Wars franchise
• The Farscape franchise
• The Planet of the Apes franchise
• The Transformers franchise
• The Terminator franchise
• Frank Herbert's Dune and its direct sequel Frank Herbert's Children of Dune
• The Firefly franchise
• Spaceballs