I started watching the much-acclaimed show Lanterns last night. As usual, I split my television time with work. I had a bunch of items to list for sale on Dave's Discovery Den: a high pile of comics, books, art, robots, toys, and a calendar was waiting for me.
As I sorted through it, I unearthed quite a few Battlestar Galactica items and realized the show I was watching and the collection I was cataloging were all connected by one thing: sci-fi. Like many of us stargazers, we're fascinated by aliens and people in costumes with superpowers. The blockbuster success of Spider-Man proves that, globally, we're fascinated by science fiction. So I did some research on the beginnings of the genre, for myself and for the members of DDD. Here's what I found.
Where It All Began
The precursors to science fiction go back to some of the earliest literature ever recorded, including the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, dating to roughly 2150 to 2000 BCE.
Sci-fi actually began as philosophical satire before evolving into the massive global pop culture phenomenon we know today. Stories of space travel and interplanetary war can be found in ancient works too, including Lucian of Samosata's True Story, written in the 2nd century.
The genre even has political roots, tracing back to works like Thomas More's Utopia and Plato's Republic. Cyrano de Bergerac later wrote of traveling to other worlds, including the moon.
The Birth of Modern Sci-Fi
Many consider Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published in 1818, to be the true birth of modern science fiction. From there, the genre kept evolving:
- 1960s to 1970s: The New Wave era brought cyberpunk and media-driven stories that tackled social issues head-on.
- 1980s: Computers and virtual reality took center stage.
- Modern era: Sci-fi expanded globally to include climate fiction, sprawling multimedia franchises, and a growing range of diverse voices.
Three of the most influential authors in the genre are Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert Heinlein, names any serious sci-fi collector will recognize.
Sci-Fi Is All Around Us
What started as fantasy has, in many ways, become reality. Cars, planes, spaceships, robots, AI, Wi-Fi: technology that once lived only in the pages of science fiction now shapes daily life. Even something like The Terminator feels closer to real than fiction these days.
So the next time you pick up a Battlestar Galactica figure, a vintage sci-fi paperback, or a comic from the Silver Age, remember you're not just holding a collectible. You're holding a piece of a genre that's been imagining our future since the dawn of storytelling.