Answer any one of the questions below:

  1. One of the roles of the science-fiction writer is to imagine, based on the present, what awaits us in the future. A whole sub-genre of science fiction deals with dystopia--a future where the world is a miserable place for most as a consequence of global disaster, environmental cataclysm, vicious social/political controls, a crippled economy (often associated with unchecked population growth), technologies enslaving rather than enhancing lives. Discuss one dystopian novel or film (something like The Giver, Farenheit 451, The Hunger Games, Brazil, THX-1138, Soylent Green, etc.). Look at the sorts of problems predicted in the future, and then show how these are really not just imaginings of the writer/filmmaker; they are actually current problems that are being dealt with (or not) in a way that is actually inviting this kind of dystopia to occur.

    Be very specific; cite ACTUAL real-world examples/incidents (in other words, avoid just generalizing and saying food shortages occur in Africa; instead, point to a specific incidence form the news that ties a food riot to overpopulation, for example).

  2. Since they are speculative works, science-fiction stories (books, films) are excellent vehicles for philosophical considerations. In other words, these movies often deal with the kinds of sophisticated questions and ideas posed in philosophy classes. For example, The Matrix (among other things), plays with the question "what is real?" Total Recall and Inception ask us to consider if dream reality is real reality. Blade Runner and A.I. reaise the issue "what is human?"

    Choose a story, book, film that explores some philosophical idea (time paradox movies work well here also). What does the work suggest about the concept and how it shakes up our conventional view of reality?

  3. If you are more math/science inspired, you can write about a work that deals with a more math/science concept and explore how the storytelling helps teach the concept. "And He Built a Crooked House," by Robert Heinlein, works, but you could also look at a much earlier work called "Flatland," by Edwin Abbott.