What Makes Us Human?

Science fiction is a popular literary form that has served important purposes. One purpose of science fiction is to entertain as the Star Wars movies. Another purpose of science fiction is to warn of future danger as Steven Spielberg showed us in Jurassic Park, where cloned dinosaurs went out of control. Yet the third purpose is to predict future technology as The Star Trek TV series does with warp drives, teleportation, and the holo-deck.

One of the most important purposes of science fiction is to explore the nature of man. As science fiction stories explore the nature of man, some qualities that make us human are love, courage, and the desire for freedom.

Love is a very important quality. "Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov, The Giver by Lois Lowry, "The Offspring" by Gene Roddenbury, and EPICAC by Kurt Venngul Jr. are all stories that show this quality.

[The Voisin brothers, French aviation pioneers. Ga...

The Giver

Paperback cover of The Wish Giver

The first story that love is shown in is Bicentennial Man. Andrew falls in love with little miss's granddaughter. Love is also shown in The Giver. Jonas shows love for Fiona and it is clearly visible that he loves Gabriel too. In "The Offspring", love is shown by Data to Lal. Data loves Lal, because data considers her as his daughter. Love is a big part of the story EPICAC. Epicac falls in love with Pat and later kills himself for her. Love is a very important quality that was showed in the stories mentioned.

Not a lot of people have courage, but it is a special quality that makes us human. In The Giver, Jonas shows a lot of courage. He shows courage when he escapes from his community with Gabriel and also when he accepts his assignment as receiver of memories. In Arena by Frederic Brown, the...