In some ways, at least metaphorically, almost all SF is travel to the future. Imagining a future is an important element of the very definition of SF. Science fiction is extremely frequently about a future world, with or without a traveller from the present. In the same way as imagining alien places, or peoples, or new worlds in space can be a way of commenting on our own world, stories about travel to the future of our world include comments on our present world.
Science fiction about time travel to the future often involves a prediction about trends, negative or positive, which have already begun. Travellers to the future in SF can see just what changes will take place, and how they grow out of conditions already in place. There is often a message about just what, in our present world, needs to be encouraged or prevented.
The future world that time travellers encounter may be a utopia or a dystopia. These different kinds of future worlds imply clear conclusions about the consequences or benefits of present-day cultural, political, or technological patterns.
What makes SF stories about time travel to the future different from SF stories which are simply about the future is the presence of the traveller, the point-of-view representative of our world. As in stories of time travel to the past, the juxtaposition of the traveler from our time gives us a personal investment and connection in the story, and a way to let characters in the story explain the differences to the reader and the time traveller..."How quaint, time traveller, you were an attorney in 2001. You see, honored ancestor, in the year 2713, we decided to hang all the lawyers." The future, which we will all see in time, but which none of us can know in advance, is no longer just an exotic locale, but one we can see through a perspective that is familiar and meaningful.
What trend do you see in the present that you would like to continue
in the future? or that you fear will continue in the future? Go to the discussion
board 
and write a description...what will you find as a traveller to the future? Utopia
or dystopia?
Don't forget to take the quizzes 
for the stories you read for this module.
Title |
Direct Link to the Online Text (you will have to login with your library barcode) |
Page number (in The Ascent of Wonder)
|
| "Light of Other Days" |
61
|
|
| "The Very Slow Time Machine" |
514
|
|
| Terminator 2 (film) | Rent it! (or borrow from the library) |
film
|