scholarly journals HOW TO USE WRITERS' PIECES OF ART – POPULARIZERS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOFT SKILLS OF ENGINEERING STUDENTS

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 68-75
Author(s):  
Olena M. Tyron
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Research And Innovation ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
The Individual

Fiction writers who are engaged in science is a phenomenon. We studied this phenomenon to gain new opportunities for the development of soft skills in students of technical specialties and to widen the possibility of popularizing scientific achievements. The chronological boundaries of the study cover the period of XVIII – the first half of XX century; geographical boundaries cover Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States. The relevance of the study is related to the relevance of popularizing science among students of technical specialties, as well as the development of soft skills through writing stories about scientific discoveries, fostering interest in reading fiction about science and technology. The purpose of the study was to find psychological and informational material that will affect the emotional sphere of the student's personality and motivate him to write and read works of art about research and innovation. The ability to use research on the role of writers as promoters of science and technology depends on how we provide information about their works. In this regard, we offer a psychological technique to impress readers of scientific stories, i.e. the effect of “wow” as a combination of the factor “wow” and the halo effect. Stories about science affect different areas of human activity. They are used to address environmental, medical, political and other issues. The information material of the study confirms the following: if scientists and inventors do not demonstrate the consequences of their inventions and discoveries, it leads to erroneous assumptions, causes alarm in society and affects the mind of the individual. We studied the nature of writers' connection to science and sought answers to the question of whether writing works of art and the ability to do research could be equal aspects of an individual's abilities. The results of the study prove that these abilities predominate in only one area of activity. We also support the view that writers can be impartial promoters of science and technology. However, we propose this idea for discussion because writers demonstrate more the ethical side of the interaction between science and the human mind than they disseminate scientific facts. The further development of the study will be related to the study of the influence of science fiction on consciousness, namely how science fiction informs the reader about the current state of the world and draws attention to the changes we must make as a species.

A Story of the Days to Come: H.G. Wells and the Language of Science Fiction

2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 199-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
New World ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Time Machine ◽  
World Language ◽  
Language Of Science ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Individual Citizen ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Individual

This article argues that, unlike most other science fiction writers, H.G. Wells gives considerable attention to language and language change in his futuristic writing; this is because he was, from the beginning of his career, fascinated by the ways in which language had shaped human lives and cultures. In many of the early scientific romances, particularly The Time Machine and The Island of Dr Moreau, failures in communication play an important part in the events of the story. In the later utopias such as The World Set Free and The Shape of Things to Come, Wells makes English the basis of a new world language, which plays an essential part in establishing social cohesion and extending the cognitive powers of the individual citizen.

Fierce Speculation, 1967–75

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jad Smith
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Writing Science

This chapter focuses on John Brunner's works from 1967 to 1975. These include Quicksand (1967), which garnered testy and argumentative reviews; Zanzibar (1968), which went on to garner Nebula and Hugo nominations; The Sheep Look Up (1972), his darkest novel set in the United States as it enters its “third century” as a nation; and The Shockwave Rider (1975), which Brunner described as convenient “shorthand” for dealing with the vicissitudes of the human mind. Brunner also contributed five columns on assorted topics to Science Fiction Review between December 1969 and March 1971. By the mid-1970s, Brunner largely dropped out of view and stopped writing science fiction.

scholarly journals Enabling Science Fiction

2021 ◽  
pp. 399
Author(s):  
Camilla Hrdy ◽  
Daniel Brean
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Real World ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Patent Law ◽  
Patent System ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Minimum Standard ◽  
Perpetual Motion

Patent law promotes innovation by giving inventors 20-year-long exclusive rights to their inventions. To be patented, however, an invention must be “enabled,” meaning the inventor must describe it in enough detail to teach others how to make and use the invention at the time the patent is filed. When inventions are not enabled, like a perpetual motion machine or a time travel device, they are derided as “mere science fiction”—products of the human mind, or the daydreams of armchair scientists, that are not suitable for the patent system. This Article argues that, in fact, the literary genre of science fiction has its own unique—albeit far laxer—enablement requirement. Since the genre’s origins, fans have demanded that the inventions depicted in science fiction meet a minimum standard of scientific plausibility. Otherwise, the material is denigrated as lazy hand-waving or, worse, “mere fantasy.” Taking this insight further, the Article argues that, just as patents positively affect the progress of science and technology by teaching others how to make and use real inventions, so too can science fiction, by stimulating scientists’ imagination about what sorts of technologies might one day be possible. Thus, like patents, science fiction can have real world impacts for the development of science and technology. Indeed, the Article reveals that this trajectory—from science fiction to science reality—can be seen in the patent record itself, with several famous patents tracing their origins to works of science fiction.

Students’ Awareness and Embracement of Soft Skills by Learning and Practicing Teamwork

10.28945/4650 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Noa Ragonis ◽  
Orit Hazzan ◽  
Gadi Har-Shai
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Software Engineering ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
University Graduates ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual

Aim/Purpose: This paper presents a study about changes in computer science and software engineering students’ perceptions of their soft skills during their progress through the Computer Science Soft Skills course. Background: Soft skills are often associated with a person’s social, emotional and cognitive capabilities. Soft skills are increasingly sought out and are well recognized by employers alongside standard qualifications. Therefore, high importance is attributed to soft skills in computer science and software engineering education. Methodology: Content analysis was applied to interpret, categorize and code statements from students’ course assignment answers. Data analysis was performed gradually at the three main stages of the course and by the two students’ study populations. Contribution: The paper highlights the variety of (a) soft skills that can be learnt in one course, both on the individual level and on the team level and (b) assignments that can be given to students to increase their awareness and motivation to practice and learn soft skills. Findings: Data analysis revealed the following: (a) five individual soft skills categories, with 95 skills, and five team-related soft skills categories, with 52 skills (in total, the students mentioned 147 soft skills); (b) course assignments and particularly team-based activities elicited student awareness of their individual soft skills, both as strengths and weaknesses; (c) students developed their reflection skills, particularly with respect to team-related soft skills; and (d) significant differences exist between the two groups of students in several categories. Recommendations for Practitioners: It is important to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to integrate soft skills during their training. Establishing a meaningful learning process, such as project-based learning, enables students to apply and develop soft skills when accompanied by reflective thought processes. Recommendation for Researchers: A similar course can be taught and be accompanied by similar analysis of students’ learning outcomes, to examine the influence of local culture on the characteristics of soft skills. Impact on Society: Increased awareness of soft skills in scientists and engineers’ undergraduate education. University graduates who will strengthen their variety of soft skills in their academic training process and will be more meaningful employees in the workplace and in society. Future Research: Our future research aims (a) to explore additional innovative ways to increase students’ learning processes, awareness and practices in relation to soft skills and (b) to research how students’ soft skills are developed during the entire undergraduate studies both on the individual level and the team level.

A Messenger of Peace to the World

2020 ◽  
pp. 301-356
Author(s):  
Duncan Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
The World ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Political Structures ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Inter State

This chapter traces the Anglotopian visions of universal peace in the context of fin-de-siècle debates about democracy, empire, race, and war. It contends that the most ambitious projects for Anglo-American synthesis promoted the idea of global racial peace — the abolition of war through the unification of Britain and the United States. Recognizing the character and significance of such arguments requires a reappraisal of the genealogy of modern peace discourse. After delineating several popular visions of peace that circulated during the nineteenth century, the chapter introduces the “democratic war thesis” and the “democratic empire thesis.” The former posited that democratic political structures caused or exacerbated inter-state conflict, while the latter suggested that vast empires could cooperatively govern the world and eradicate war. The chapter examines the racial peace thesis, which was propounded, albeit in different forms, by Andrew Carnegie, Cecil J. Rhodes, W. T. Stead, and H. G. Wells, many of the science fiction writers discussed in Chapter 5, and an array of other unionist political thinkers. This was the utopian core of the Anglo-racial dreamworld.

“Diabolic rays” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs”: about one modern literary topic in science fiction of the 1920s

Neophilology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 548-556
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Kolchanov
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Social Transformations ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
The Road

Science fiction literature of the 1920s connected with the topic of heat rays is studied. Begun in the novel of Herbert George Wells “The War of the Worlds” (1897) and in the novel of A.F. Ossendowski “Brig “Horror” (1913), in the decade after October Revolution it became more widely distributed. In each work heat rays got its name: “death rays” in the novel of H. Dominik (1921), “violet rays” in the novel of V.P. Kataev “The Island of Erendorf” (1924), “red ray”, or “life ray” in the novel of M.A. Bulgakov “The Fatal Eggs” (1924), heat rays in the novel of A.N. Tolstoy “The Garin Death Ray” (1926–1927), “orange ray” in the novel of A.F. Paley “Gulfstream” (1927). In all literary works, including pre-revolutionary ones (except for the last one – “Gulfstream”), the heat ray played an extremely negative role in the development of humanity and civilization. The Martians were the first to use weapons to destroy humanity, then the ray fell into the hands of brilliant scientists. The ray, created by brilliant scientists, most often end up in the hands of self-interested and obsessed people, and Russian writers brought a serious doubt to the scientistic aspirations of the human mind. This theme ran parallel to the road of modern re-search and discoveries in the field of science and technology: in the world laser weapons were be-ing developed as weapons of mass destruction for the future wars of a planetary scale. In the So-viet press, it was “baptized” as the “diabolic rays”, and most important – they tried to implement into the field of social transformations in society, which brought the October Revolution, plans on establishing a socialist system on the entire planet. The central place is given for the novel M.A. Bulgakov’s “The Fatal Eggs”, which absorbed not only the achievements of modern science and technology, not just fantasies of writers – predecessors and contemporaries, but also allusions on the occult motifs in literature and culture: black magic of doctor Faust from the drama-miracle play of J.W. Goethe “Faust”, spells from the “Egyptian Book of the Dead”, old Russian ritual “Troyetsyplyatnitsa”, the egg motif “ad ovo”. Numerous occult details in the story tell about the mechanism of the “red ray”.

scholarly journals COUNTERACTION TO THE SYSTEM AND ANTI-SYSTEM IN THE STRUGATSKY BROTHERS'STORY "SNAIL ON THE SLOPE"

2021 ◽  
pp. 5-9
Author(s):  
I. V. Bratus
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
The Future ◽  
Literary Heritage ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Future Work

Aspects of countering the system and anti-system are considered in the Strugatsky brothers ' novel "Snail on the slope". It is proved that science fiction writers managed to recreate quite complex aspects of the interaction of various systems within the framework of literary heritage. The broad palette of writers has absorbed an understanding of contradictions with underlying causes. In this article, some aspects of the interaction of the individual and the system, systems and anti-systems are demonstrated. Special attention is paid to the Soviet realities, which became the basis for the artistic picture of the fantastic world. This indicates the uniqueness of "Snail on the slope". One of the unique qualities is the influence on the story "Snail on the slope" by Franz Kafka (novels "The Process", "The Castle"). When analyzing the story, the focus of countering the system and the anti- system is transferred to the idea of the future. It is proved that the writers abandoned the continuous optimistic model of the future inherent in their earlier works. Strugatsky brothers have worked out in detail the mechanism of the inability to evolve into the future without radical changes in the essence of man. The literature of the second half of the twentieth century contains an extraordinary potential for understanding our current realities. Somewhere we are even in a more "winning" position – the authors and readers of that time had a more narrowed range of analysis, which was naturally inherent in "their time". At the same time, we are also partially vulnerable, especially in the historical and cultural context. Because the time of writing a work leaves an imprint on its content, the keys to its understanding are often in the social parallels of everyday life, which is fully understood by contemporaries, and "descendants" need to explain certain specific aspects of everyday life, psychological model or banal meaning of a particular word (they become anachronisms or acquire a different meaning). At the same time, it is worth paying attention to those questions that are transcendental in nature. Strugatsky brothers in "Snail on the Slope" experienced a corresponding experience – they tried to create a multi-faceted picture of the world with "their own" laws. At the same time, the task they set was not only to come up with, but also to "guess" the true concept, to bring the artistic fabric of the work closer to the "truth of life". Therefore, this work is fundamentally different from a significant part of their literary heritage, it is a kind of "experimental platform". They did not try to repeat this experience in their future work.

scholarly journals The New Right Stuff: Social Imaginaries of Outer Space and the Capitalist Accumulation of the Cosmos

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor R. Genovese
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
New Right ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Public ◽  
Neoliberal Capitalism ◽  
Neoliberal Economics ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Individual

This thesis utilizes ethnographic and historical data in order to propose that the trajectory of outer space imaginaries—and therefore, as will be demonstrated, the future realities of outer space affairs—has drifted from peaceful exploration to violent exploitation due to the rise of private space corporations (operating under the moniker of NewSpace). This is partially due to the increasing acceptance of neoliberal capitalism within the United States—and much of the Global North—since the 1970s. Furthermore, NewSpace companies —which now possess multi-billion dollar contracts with governmental space agencies—are zealous adopters of neoliberal economics, and these philosophies are tied to colonial conceptions of the individual, limited governance, unchecked resource extraction, and frontier mentalities. These concepts became apparent during my multi-sited ethnographic investigations of NewSpace—as well as governmental—facilities and museums. This thesis argues that these hegemonic economic ontologies must be met with resistance from social scientists, science fiction authors, and the public in order to create a human future in outer space that is equitable, decolonized, and democratic.

scholarly journals The Ingress Of World Artistic Experience In The Fine Arts Of The 1970s-1980s

2021 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 198-202
Author(s):  
Khasanboy Umarjon Ugli Rakhimov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
Fine Arts ◽  
Fine Art ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Artistic Experience ◽  
Works Of Art ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

The work of writing discusses the history of Uzbek fine arts. It analyzes the different period works of art by Uzbek and Russian artists who lived in Uzbekistan. Fine art is one of the arts that quickly affects the human mind, arouses good feelings and enriches the spiritual world.At the same time, the visual arts are educators who contribute to the formation and development of the individual.

Dreamworlds of Race

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan Bell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Fiction Writers ◽  
Racial Domination ◽  
Anglo American

Between the late nineteenth century and the First World War an ocean-spanning network of prominent individuals advocated the unification of Britain and the United States. They dreamt of the final consolidation of the Angloworld. Scholars, journalists, politicians, businessmen, and science fiction writers invested the “Anglo-Saxons” with extraordinary power. The most ambitious hailed them as a people destined to bring peace and justice to the earth. More modest visions still imagined them as likely to shape the twentieth century. This book explores this remarkable moment in the intellectual history of racial domination, political utopianism, and world order. Focusing on a quartet of extraordinary figures, the book shows how unionists on both sides of the Atlantic reimagined citizenship, empire, patriotism, race, war, and peace in their quest to secure global supremacy. Yet even as they dreamt of an Anglo-dominated world, the unionists disagreed over the meaning of race, the legitimacy of imperialism, the nature of political belonging, and the ultimate form and purpose of unification. The racial dreamworld was an object of competing claims and fantasies. Exploring speculative fiction as well as more conventional forms of political writing, the author reads unionist arguments as expressions of the utopianism circulating through fin-de-siècle Anglo-American culture, and juxtaposes them with pan-Africanist critiques of racial domination and late twentieth-century fictional narratives of Anglo-American empire. Tracing how intellectual elites promoted an ambitious project of political and racial unification between Britain and the United States, the book analyzes ideas of empire and world order that reverberate to this day.

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