Article ID: CBB457634235

The Forever War: understanding, science fiction, and thought experiments (2021)

unapi

The aim of this paper is to show that scientific thought experiments and works of science fiction are highly suitable tools for facilitating and increasing understanding of science. After comparing one of Einstein’s most famous thought experiments with the science fiction novel “The Forever War”, I shall argue that both proceed similarly in making some of the more outlandish consequences of special relativity theory intelligible. However, as I will also point out, understanding in thought experiments and understanding in science fiction differ in one important respect: While the former aim at what I shall call “physical understanding”, science fiction novels typically have “existential understanding” as their target.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB457634235/

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Authors & Contributors
Krige, John G.
Plutniak, Sébastien
Mant, Madeleine
Babaii, Esmat
Asadnia, Fatemeh
Rossini, Paolo
Concepts
Public understanding of science
Science fiction
Knowledge circulation
Sociology of knowledge
Science and literature
Popularization
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
Early modern
Medieval
20th century, early
Places
United States
Europe
Russia
Great Britain
East Asia
Sweden
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