Details
INSTRUCTOR: Ruben Garrote
SECTION: U19
SCHEDULE: Tuesday, Thursday, 12:30PM – 1:45PM
Course Description
In Future Shock, Alvin Toffler argued for the study of science fiction as a means of leading “young minds through an imaginative exploration of the jungle of political, social, psychological, and ethical issues that will confront” them in the future. This course explores the ways in which alternate worlds and futuristic times are imagined, and how these visions at once radically transform our models of reality and identity and prepare us to confront such radical transformations. Students will read (and watch) some of the great works of science fiction from the past 100 years. These will serve as subjects for an imaginative exploration of possible changes in technology and the environment, of lifestyles and relationships — indeed, even of our very humanity. They will explore the boundaries of our experience of our world and others. Finally, through various inventive exercises they will apply their own imagination to confront the shock of the future.